Machu Picchu

One of the wonders of the world, we went there over two days, spending the night in Aguas Calientes. Our first day we spent 3 hours there, from 3pm til 6pm, and it was sunny & beautiful. The quality of blue sky, let alone the surrounding mountains, made me think that I was in a different world. The second day, we went up at 5:30am and stayed for 8 hours. Ostensibly we went up to see the sunrise, but it was shrouded in mists and clouds, which made for a more introspective, moody, and spiritual experience. Machu Picchu is about 9,000 feet above sea level, so there was some altitude consideration walking around, but it's lower than Cusco (our "home base" for the area). Just one note about the photos: where these were taken were mainly right above the entrance overlooking the main plaza, with the peak of Huanupicchu (wainupicchu) immediately in the background. On the second misty, rainy, slippery day we hiked up to the top of Wainupicchu, which was also amazing, and muddy, and did I mention slippery? How the Incas cut the stones into the side of this mountain, and lugged other stone steps up the side of this steep mountain is truly a feat. This was an extremely steep hike; they only allow 400 people up a day; most of the way was up stone stairs, sometimes with wire cable railings. At one point, even I was moved to create a song during this hike (to the tune of simon & garfunkle's "sound of silence")--"hello cable my old friend..." I hiked up with Nate & Anne, and Tania joined us later after some muffins. It was incredible. An important side note, Nate proposed to Anne in Macchu Pichu on that misty morning, which was very sweet.