Group Picture!
Alpacas/llamas roam around Machu Picchu to help keep grass under control. They eat all day long and they don’t have to buy lawn mowers :)
View of Machu Picchu
The village- many sections/areas were divided in the village. For sacrifices in the plaza to homes to food storage to farm land.
You can see the staggered “steps” which was used for farming. Water retention was important back then and still is as water is at the bottom of the village from river staggered land helps retain water and flow to the next level.
Long line for the bus ride down
Chatting and keeping each other busy while waiting in line.
Our bus.
Machu Picchu!
So beautiful!
By Jacob S.
This morning the whole group woke up at around 5 in the morning to jumpstart our long day. The previous day, we had bought bus tickets for the 5:30 morning bus. But despite waking up early in the morning, there was a half a mile line of people for the same bus station we were trying to get to. It took about 30 minutes before we finally reached a bus and got on at 6:00 AM to be on our way to Machu Picchu to see the world-famous Incan ruins that was a 30 minutes drive from the mountain village we stayed in. Because it was still early in the morning there was a faint grey light in the sky from extremely low hanging clouds about 300 feet from the ground. When we all arrive we bought tickets to gain entrance to the ruins. Because the ruins was higher than the village we stayed, much of the area and ruins was engulfed in the clouds which was now a fog. We took a short trek to this path that was supposed to lead to hiking trail for a mountain that is 3,061 meters high. The hike itself is supposed to take 2-3 hours. But our group split into several groups to reached the peak at different times. One group finished in an hour and 15 minutes, another was 10 minutes behind, and the next was 15 minutes later, and then the next arrived 45 minutes later. One group went halfway on the mountain, and decided to stop then go back. After taking a group photo on the mountain top, we went backs. Going down should take 2 hours also. But one group finished the way down in 30 minutes. Another finished 40 minutes, and others varied with the last finishing within the average 2 hours.
After the whole gang got back together, we then inspected the ancient city of Incas, which took overall 45 minutes. After that we proceed to have lunch. After we got in line that was 2 miles long for the bus station to go back home. It took 1 hour, 35 minutes, and 38 seconds to finally get on a bus. During the line, 2 students didn't have their bus tickets and had to use their student ID to show that they were with the group. However, one student dropped their ID down a hill that was off limits and it made a 20 foot drop. Because they needed the ID, they were forced by the gang to go get the ID. After getting the ID back, we found that we didn't need it after all and everybody got onto the bus without trouble. Once on, students slept on the bumpy ride back to the village we originally came from. We spent rest of the evening shopping and dining out before catching last train out of town. We are moving closer to Cusco airport so that we can catch our flight to Iquitos on Thursday.
