Machu Picchu does not disappoint

Machu Picchu! Machu Picchu means old mountain and it was considered a sacred spot for the Inca people. Various theories range from the location of a nunnery for Inca women wear virgins were educated. Some evidence of this is backed up by the preponderance of female bones found here. There is a precise layout according to celestial events here so could also have been an observatory.  There are new regulations that allow only a four hour window for visitors who must now be accompanied by a guide. However we bought our tickets a year ago so we can go in and out at will up to three times per day.  Since we did not use a guide to enter today we kind of went in backwards. We were going against the flow and had a couple of let's say stern looks from Guides. One man even yelled down to us to tell us we were going the wrong way. There were no signs until we were well into that path. So we got off to the side and found some cool little places to investigate. And we have a good idea of the layout and we're ready for tomorrow's guided tour.

This is part of the drainage system. The wall is so intricate and has so many different multi cornered rocks it's amazing

Looking out for one of the windows of a building

 

Perhaps this building was for storage perhaps someone lived here

I only climbed up seven or eight sets of stairs to get this picture.

This is looking up the remainder of the stairs

The neighboring Mountain across the river

A Lone Tree silhouetted against the clouds

At times it is very busy

In the cloud forest everything can be wet

Looking down towards our little Hideaway

Not all the walls have survived the centuries intact

There are workers and people here however the layout of it makes them hard to see

Who needs a ladder when the stones themselves are your steps

Tight quarters

The path leads around to the right where the picture above comes from

Very precise stone work

It is not toasty warm

Machu Picchu the spread out before us

We are way up in the clouds

Big Rockwall

It covers many acres

Huts on the horizon

This is a panoramic picture, enlarge it

We could hear the train pull into the station

Terraces