#1 A race to the top
Adjacent to the town is a mountain called Huyana Picchu. It takes 3 hours to get to the top of this Mountain in back. We chose not to take this trip. However in the past a man did it in only 20 minutes. He was so elated when he reached the top, he jumped from rock to rock to rock. This was not advisable since he's fell off a rock and got a compound fracture on his leg. The strongest guides were called to come and help. The guides made it up to the top in only 9 minutes. The man was more upset that the guides beat his time then he was to have a compound fracture in his leg.
After the ruins are two small hills and a big one. That is where people hike up. Even with the super zoom camera the people looked like dots.
Up up up. Only 400 people per day are allowed
#2 The hottie and the llama story.
Our guide described a woman as extremely hot. She was beautiful, scantily clad and was posing provocatively for the camera. To maximize her sexy pose she begins to eat a banana. Little does she know that llamas love banana peels. While she was not paying attention, the llamas got closer and closer to her. When she did pay attention she was startled and began to run from the llamas. More and more llamas gave chase and she became even more scared. She eventually ran right off of a 5 foot ledge and did a face plant. The llamas got their banana peels and tourists got some funny videos.
No bananas today
Nature's lawnmowers
Aye yai yai it's so beautiful
#3 Destruction of the monolith in the Central Square!!!
In 1978 the queen and king of Spain came for a visit. The current dictator decided that they should land in the Central Square at Machu Picchu and take a look around. However there was a giant monolith there in the Central Square. Unperturbed he had it removed. It was replaced after their visit but that set a precedence. When it was removed again in 1989 for a collection of Latin American Presidents, it was irreparably damaged. Rather than replace it or try to fix it they buried it! Makes you wonder!
It used to be here
This is the whole Central Square area.
Former location of monolith / altar
#4 Attack of the beer commercial
A low-level bureaucrat authorized a beer commercial to be filmed at the Intihuatana Stone, an important astronomical location in the city. A heavy camera boom was brought up to the location and while filming it malfunctioned and broke part of this monolith corner off. Now no one's allowed within 5 feet of it! I don't think tourists can do the same amount of damage as heavy camera equipment but you've got to ask yourself.
All the different angles and bevels and sections and protuberance is have meaning from an astronomical point of view
You can only view it from this side because otherwise you'd see the broken off area
We missed the solstice by a couple of weeks but had we been there, perhaps you would have seen an alignment
Bright sunshine today at the location of the fated beer commercial filming
