machu picchu!

hike

Today we went to Machu Picchu. The photos below are of our 20 km hike to the town below Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes. This hike is in the tradition of the Incas. Most archeologists (and Brynn) believe that the Incas built the Machu Picchu citadel as a vacation spot. They built it pretty far from Cusco (main Inca city) so those on vacation can get some good exercise on the hike. Actually, we didn't hike all the way from Cusco. Instead we took a van and a couple cars from Cusco to Hidroelectrica, then hiked 20 km to Aguas Calientes, then another bus to Machu Picchu. At least we didn't take the train that connects Hidroelectrica to Aguas Calientes.

The walk was pretty. The river is the Urubamba (or Wilcamayo in Quechua) and flows through the Sacred Valley. Wilca=Sacred and Mayo=River in Quechua. The rocks remind me of the Yuba, except the river is larger and faster. Below are pictures of the walk. We found some neat flowers that we think are either called birds of paradise or false birds of paradise. See if you can spot Machu Picchu in the photos below.

cuzco and the temperamental bug

we were a couple days sidetracked in cuzco on our way to machu picchu for car problems.  cuzco is the largest city near machu picchu, so it relies almost entirely on tourism as anyone going to machu picchu has to connect through there.  we were just going to spend a night and then head to the ruins, but ended up taking our car back to the mechanic four times.  four times!  first time i don't think he understood us, and fixed something that wasn't really a problem.  second time, third time, we took the car out and had the same problem a few minutes out of town; the car stalls.  michael and i have a billion different amateur theories on why this may be, mainly because we've had plenty of time to form them sitting on the side of the road, waiting for the car to cool down to start it again.  basically, it runs - sometimes, and painfully slow, and preferably in the cold or at night.  at any rate - the fourth time, we left it at the mechanic, said take your time and get it right, we're taking a bus up to machu picchu in the meantime.

but anyway - here's a bunch of breakdown pictures (things i photographed while sitting on the side of the road) and other random cuzco city pictures.    

and here we're showing off our matching alpaca sweaters!

peru highlands in about 10 words

we're leaving for machu piccu in about five minutes and i just got around to looking through pictures from the last few days... in short, we bought a car, a 1968 royal blue temperamental VW bug.  we're in the mountains in peru, we just bought matching alpaca sweaters, gloves and hats, and we're ready for our macchu piccu hike, provided the car will start this morning!  more later, once we have a few minutes and a decent internet connection.  the mountains here are beautiful.

michael: "i thought they'd be bigger"