Machu Pichu

We woke up early to drive down to Ollytamtanbo where the train would take us down to Aquas Caliente, the last pueblo before Machu Pichu. The train rode along the Urabamba River which was wildly thrashing itself against the hard granit rock. Nicole kept looking down at the river and talking about her water nightmares. ¨I´ve been in that before and haven´t made it¨.

The snow capped mountains followed us down the river, watching us make our way to Machu Pichu. Upon arriving to the last town, our guide was holding up a sign for ¨Shipman¨, except it wasn´t so flattering with one letter changed to the derogative.

The final bus wound its way up the dirt road and dropped us off at the park gates. Not knowing our guide´s name we sat and ate lunch while he waited patiently for us to arrive - just yards away. Once together we snuck our large packs with the prohibitive mass of food and drink pass the rangers and headed up to the lost city. Our guide Steven gave us a two hour tour of all the special temples and created a picture that made it much more than a ¨bunch of old rocks piled up¨ for Hannah and Ava.

Afterwards, left to our own, we hiked around, up and down, even outside the city. Eating lunch it began to rain and we took shelter under a thatched roofed hut. The rain drove a bunch of the crowd away, and the afternoon sun combined with the mist rising from the valley gave it all a mysterious feel. We sat and took it all in.