Machu Picchu Day 2

Our hotel was AMAZING!!!!

Machu Picchu is more than amazing ... there are no words!!!  It is WAY bigger than I thought it was!  You never get to see the back half in pictures! 

(Remember that they don't even have everything cleared!  It is a monumental task to keep this much cleared.  The terraces go really far down the mountain.  They have a few patches down the mountain cleared just so you can see how giant this place really was).

When Machu Picchu was first "discovered the only part that wasn't overgrown was the sun temple, which is the circular structure in the middle of this picture.  The reason is because there is no mortar or dirt between the rocks.  The stones are carved so perfectly that it is made with only stone on stone.

It was actually my very favorite structure in all of Machu Picchu!  The Inca's didn't have any metal so they were carving these stones (perfectly) with other stone.  The top round structure is the sun temple and underneath is the temple for Pacha Mama.

This is a good view of one of the walls of the sun temple.  You can really see the perfection in the lines.  Even the corner stones wrap around.

It is structures like these that they know Machu Picchu wasn't finished.  These are the beginning of some stairs ... yes more Inca stairs.

Historians figure Machu Picchu wasn't discovered by the Spanish because it holds the only completed alter of any Inca ruins.  Every other alter was destroyed by the Spanish because the Inca's sacrificed babies on these alters.

Look carefully and you will see a hole in the ground where explores discovered Incan mummies.

An Inca door way ... I think they were a bit shorter than I was!!!

(Which makes their stair climbing ability even more impressive!)

I really wish I'd counted how many stairs I climbed from the bottom of the ruins to the Inca bridge.  I felt like I was on the biggest loser.  I kept picture Bob behind me telling me how worth it this experience would be, how lucky I was to experience this!!!  I'm going to try and google how many stairs there really are ... I wonder what I'll find.  One things for sure, the Inca's were in really REALLY good shape!!

First to the top ... YAY!!!

Sisters

The Inca Bridge.  So cool.  It is just wood so if intruders happened to come they could kick it off and there was really no way for anyone to cross.  That is part of the Inca trail which is a very thin trail on a cliff!!!  Unbelievable!

There were lots of Alpaca grazing in Machu Picchu.  Unfortunately the best picture of me is with the alpaca butt!  Oh well!!!

20 minutes after cuddling with this baby alpaca I was eating alpaca ... is that creepy??