PERU: Walking the Saltankay Route to Machu Picchu, Day 11

Objective accomplished!  We explore Machu Picchu!

This panorama taken from the top of Huayna Picchu isn't that great, but it does give you a sense of the rugged country that is the setting for the city of Machu Picchu.  To be honest, I don't think any photo gives you a real sense of what it's like when you're there.  It is almost "otherworldly," a rooftop setting with incredible views in all directions. 

And I'm going to warn you now, there are no words in my brain or on this page that will get anywhere close to the magic and mystery of the city.

To begin with, Dalmiro was right again.  He said just relax for most of the morning and we would take the bus (the harrowing bus route can be seen in the switchbacks on the left of the city in the photo above) in the late morning.  He was right - most people want to get there early in the day and the number of people decreased significantly as the day went on.






This may be a "classic" photo with the main city surrounding the grassy courtyard and Huayna Picchu, the mountain behind the city, in back.

The terraces are just amazing and they add depth and character to the site.  Of course, they were also used to plant food and graze animals . .. .


There are times when the walls of the terrace drop off the mountainside.  I have no idea how they built the walls.

I find it hard to get "dropoff" depth to photos, in order to show one step into a 1500 foot fall.  This photo looks out to the side of Huayna Picchu down into the valley.

More interesting to me was where we had been the day before.  If you read yesterday's entry, we visited the Llactapa ruins and had lunch soon after. 

If you follow up the brown hillside in the middle of the photo, you see a tiny patch in a lighter gray color.  At the top of that patch is where we ate lunch.  Up from that is Llactapata, although you can't see it in the photo.

There are a variety of "famous" structures at Machu Picchu, most of which I won't go into because they're so common.  They all seem to have multiple theories as to why they are the way they are.

I like this entry gate with Huayna Picchu in the background and the roof lines at the base of the mountain and doorway.

I was fascinated with the design and construction of the walls, roofs, and city.  That's a might big lintel over the doorway with finely carved rocks to support it.

The two rectangular holes to the left and right of the door were though to hold some type of secure door to keep aliens out.

 In this photo,  I love how closely everything fits together. 

This is a reconstructed roof.  The beam on the right supports the "rafters" as shown.  But what about the carved round protrusion of stone that was part of the wall?  It served to tie down the roof.  There were many of those in all the roof systems.

I think it was Tom, one of our group members, pretended to be a rockworker in old age, "Son, I don't know if you'll be able to carry on the tradition.  I carved 4 rocks in my lifetime - I'll bet you can't beat that!"

The Incans being mountain worshippers, the theory behind this rock was to echo the surrounding mountains. 

Some people go to Machu Picchu and get "energy and great vibes" from it.  To each his or her own.  I just enjoyed seeing it.

As the day went on, we got some little rain squalls and sprinkles.   It added light and texture to the scene.

I like this photo because of the different "echo" of the rooflines and Huayna Picchu behind.

 This is another photo I enjoyed because of the tree, the light, the fine rockwork, and the mountains behind.

Big rocks were often fitted into the other rockwork - I would assume because they were too much of a pain to move. 

I took this to show the green of the terraces and the huge rocks that were worked into the terrace landscape. 

It's an amazing place.  What a great day.