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I knew that today would be the highlight of our Peru trip. So when Valentine suggested waking up at 3:00 AM so that we could be first in line at the entrace gate to Machu Picchu, I readily agreed, as did everyone else in our party. I imagined us standing at the Sun Gate and enjoying that classic view down to Machu Picchu. The timing of a 3 A.M. wakeup call was about right - when we arrived at the gate at 3:40am, we found that a couple of our porters along with Jess and David from our hiking party had actually awakened earlier and hiked down to the gate and reserved our spots, so we were indeed first in line. When 5:30 AM came, we charged through the gate - and discovered that it was cloudy and raining. The walk to Intipunku, the Sun Gate, turned out to be further than I expected, it was a walk over a couple of miles. There was one steep staircase to clamber up, and then we were at the Sun Gate. The clouds were so thick that nothing could be seen. I was disappointed. It is a long walk down from the Sun Gate to Machu Picchu proper. We passed a couple of people who were hiking up - one guy asked me how was the view. I just shook my head - didn't he notice the thick clouds surrounding us? We stopped at the main tourist entrance to Machu Picchu. Valentine handed out Tshirts commemorating our successful hike of the Inca Trail with Alpaca Expeditions. Back inside Machu Picchu, Valentine led us on a guided walk through the ruins. He showed us the Sun Temple, the Royal Quarters, the Sacred Plaza and the Intihuatana, the Hitching Post of the Sun. We got a good overview of the ruins. I have tried to include Valentine's comments in the captions for my photos. At the Main Plaza, at about 10 A.M., Valentine gave us our tickets for climbing Huayna Picchu. Jess and David were not climbing the mountain, so we waved goodbye to our Australian friends. Louise and Gordon did climb the mountain, and we took some photos with them at the summit. The clouds had completely burned off by the time we started our hike up Huayna Picchu. (Machu Picchu means "Old Mountain". Huayna Picchu translates as "New Mountain" or "Young Mountain.") We were fortunate that we were on the second group climbing Huayna Picchu (only two groups of 200 tourists are permitted to climb the mountain each day), the earlier group must have been disappointed with the dense cloud layer. Our views from the top were spectacular. We could see out over the site, all the ruins, and all the way down to the Urubamba River and up to the summit of Mount Machu Picchu (which we would climb on the next day). We ate a small lunch on one of the terraces of Huayna Picchu, enjoying the scene. Back down at Machu Picchu, we used my guidebook to continue our tour of Machu Picchu. We walked through the Urban Sector, saw the Temple of the Condor. We decided to hike over to the Inca Bridge. The Inca Bridge is precarious set of wooden planks built into the side of an incredible cliff. It is a scary drop just looking at it. The Inca who walked that road must have had no fear of heights. When we returned from Inca Bridge, it seemed that Machu Picchu was nearly deserted. Most of the tourists had scrambled to catch the buses back down to Aguas Calientes. I was thankful we planned to spend a second day at Machu Picchu, it meant we did not have to hurry our departure. We visited the Guardhouse, the Dry Moat and entered Machu Picchu via the Inca Main Gate (notice in my photo of that doorway how Huayna Picchu is perfectly framed by the door - anyone who entered that gate would have seen an ideal view of the holy mountain.) We looked down into the Temple of the Sun, and walked along the Street of Fountains. When we did depart, there was no line for the bus. We rode down to Aguas Calientes, grabbed a pizza for an early dinner and headed to bed. Despite the disappointing start to the day, with clouds and rain, our visit to Machu Picchu was indeed the highlight of our trip. Tomorrow turned out to be even better! Panorama Photos
MapsThis map shows how Machu Picchu was built on a ridge between two mountains (Huayna Picchu and Mount Machu Picchu) that have an almost perfect North to South alignment
This map shows the ruins of Machu Picchu. I have labeled the most significant buildings.
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Click on any thumbnail to begin the slide show at that photograph Day 8 Photos
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