Machu Picchu is located 73 miles northwest of Cusco by train. It is 2,453 meters above sea level.
The most important monument inside the sanctuary is the City or Inka Llaqta of Machu Picchu which was built around 1450. The construction to Machu Picchu was made for the need of the Inka State to have a religious, political and administrative center within a sacred space that was considered a link between the Andes and the Amazon. Machu Picchu was abandoned during the 2nd half of the 16th century but was occasionally visited and inhabited by local farmers. Professor Hiram Bingham visited Machu Picchu and was impressed by it that in 1912 he returned with a team of professionals who conducted excavations and research in and around Machu Picchu. Today there are about 2,000 visitors daily.
We bought our Machu Picchu bus tickets for $24 roundtrip. Transportation is eating away at my wallet.. The bus ride was about 30mins up the winding mountainside. We passed by people that were walking the trail. It was really hot, can’t imagine how hot they must’ve been..
When we got there, we went in search of food. We only had 2 options. To eat at a very expensive restaurant or get in the long line that had cheaper food. We waited in that long line. Originally we were going to eat at the top of Machu Picchu but we were so hungry that we just ate our food when we got it. I got a massive meat pie, Lu got a hotdog and Katriz got pizza.
After eating we went and entered the base of Machu Picchu. We also stamped our passports with this Machu Picchu stamp. We didn’t know which way to go so we just sorta followed this one crowd. Good thing too because otherwise we would’ve done it the opposite way. The hike wasn’t too bad. There were a lot of stone steps but nothing we couldn’t handle. There were kids and elder people walking up so we had no reason to be out of breath.
We took the obligatory pictures at the obligatory areas. After that we would walk a bit, take some more photos, walk some more, take some more photos. We obviously took a lot of the same photos.
Katriz alone took about 320 photos, Lu took about 160 and I took about 110. Later on when I was filtering thru all our combined photos I managed to get it down to………101! Not bad but still a lot.
At one point we spotted some llamas just chillin by the roadside and of course we had to take photos with them! The llama by itself was pretty chill just chewin away at something. Further behind him was a mama and baby llama. As we got closer the baby llama turned his bead away from us. We still took photos with them. At least we didn’t pet them or bother them too much like the other tourists. There was also a white young llama that had a brown spot on his butt. He wouldn’t let anyone get close.
As we were making our way away from the llamas, the white llama and its mom walked right up behind us in a rush and scared the crap out of us. They were so close and the road we were in wasn’t that wide. I think they were getting bothered by the other tourists and decided to find another spot..
We spent a total of 2 hours walking around the entirety of the ruins. There were a lot of security everywhere. A lot of the places were roped off because they were still being re-constructed. It was still pretty amazing being there and taking everything all in. Its crazy to think that a group of people built this place out of stone and on top of these massive stones. How were they able to do this?! One of the best and most breathtaking views I’ve seen!
On the bus back, the driver had Katriz sit in the front. Lucky duck! Aside from my right arm getting eatin alive by mosquitoes(?), we had a really great time walking the ruins of Machu Picchu and it just so happened that we went on a day where the weather was just perfect!
