We were grateful to have a slightly later start this morning, which meant breakfast at 8am in our hotel. We then arranged to have our bags delivered to the train station at 3pm, and met Raul in the queue for the bus. These buses take tourists up and down the mountain almost continually from 4am to 11pm everyday. And they are almost always full! (Machu Picchu gets around 1.5 million visitors a year)
On we hopped (after showing our tickets and passports – you need these for everything here!), and up we went. It wasn’t long before we were in the sunshine, enjoying the ruins up close.
We really loved spotting the Sun Gate from Machu Picchu itself, and learning about the Sun Temple within the city. There are many temples here, all dedicated to different gods. But the Sun Temple was fascinating because it was built at exactly the right spot for the summer solstice’s first rays to hit through the Sun Gate up in the mountain, and directly into the temple.
This following photo shows the ‘condor’ temple – you can see the natural rock formation forms the wings, and the rocks on the ground show the condors head, collar and even beak. This area was sacred for the Incas… within the holes in the walls above many shrines and mummies were found – showing that the condor temple represents leaving this world and flying to a higher realm.
Despite the heat and the strong sunshine, several of us (especially Kate) felt we could’ve spent a much longer time in the ruins, but soon our time was up and we were making our way down to the restaurant for our lunch. This was our last meal with Raul, as he heads off on the full Inca trail on Friday with a new group of travellers.
After lunch, it was a trip back down the mountain on the bus, and then we had some time for wandering around Aguas Calientes and enjoying the markets and the vibes. We also managed to find Paddington in Peru!
We then took PeruRail again – out of the valley, and met Eber (our driver from 2/3 days ago), who drove us back to Cusco. We arrived quite late in the evening, and were all pretty tired. The girls stayed in the hotel (the younger three choosing crisps in bed for dinner!) and the boys went out for some food. A quick sort of some clothes for the local laundry here, which we will pick up tomorrow after lunch and then it was bed for all, as we prepared for our last day in Peru and our onward journey to Argentina.
Coyle Family Adventures 