Machu Picchu

We made it and are now back in Lima.  Machu Picchu - MP -was marvelous - much more impressive than anything we've seen before.  We arrived on Tuesday around noon, had lunch then headed for the site.  Really interesting in that we took a bus from Cuzco to a train to MP city and then a bus up the mountain.  Lots of switch backs.  It is amaizing what the Inca's did in the relatively short amount of time they ruled prior to the arrival of the Sapnish with their guns, horses and smallpox.  All of the terraces which they used for agriculture were filled with dirt form the Sacred Valley over 20 km away.  Toured the main site for about 3 hours, finally getting kicked out after four of us made a quick and harried trip to the location from which the poster pictures of MP are taken.  It was quite fun, but showed us just what terrible shape we are in - oh well we made it, just not in record time.  We had dinner at the same restaurant we had lunch, nothing to write home about.

The next morning we took off about 8 to return to the mountain to take the trail to the Sun Gate.  It took us about 2 hours with about a 1,000 foot elevation gain over a couple of miles.  Again we came up against our physical limitations, but made it to the top.  Spectacular views all the way up with intersting views of the main area of MP.  Our pace allowed for a lot of picture taking while others caught their breath.  Ran down to get to lunch at a great buffet - ate too much - to catch the train back to the bus to return to Cuzco. 

Cuzco was very interesting - left much more to see.  It was the focal point -  the belly button - of the Inca empire.  They built roads from there to all their other major cities and into Argentina.  Many of the Inca buildings were built on pre-Inca sites which the Spanish then put their colonial buildings - mainly churches.  There were 27 Catholic churches at their peak, 18 are sitll active.

We have returned to Lima this afternoon and leave for Santiago, Chile tomorrow.  More to follow, but will continue to be intermittent.