12 Inca wonder of Machu Picchu

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To see video I filmed today (with sound), click on this link: YouTube 20070406

It's a bit strange, but it feels like the whole trip has been building up to coming here. Machu Picchu is the most famous thing we are seeing.  It's the one thing that everyone back home knows about Peru (apart from Paddington Bear of course!).

It's the one thing that everyone back home knows about Peru (apart from Paddington Bear of course!)

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It is possible to climb the mountain to Machu Picchu from the town, but most people take the shuttle buses.  I'm in favour of that anyway, and today it is raining quite heavily, so is even more attractive!  It takes about half an hour up a very windy path zig zagging up the mountain.

It's a shame that we can't arrive and see it in all it's wonder in the sunshine, but the rain and mist adds it's own atmosphere.  I'm just glad I didn't trek in this weather!

At 8am We have a guided tour of it all for 2hrs.  Then have the rest of the day as free time to explore.  You could easily spend days here.  It is so vast and so incredible.  It is so high up and inaccessible, but the incas built it with massive boulders, and it is so big.  I don't know how much ground it covers, but it was quite a feat.  I guess that's why it's one of the 'wonders of the world'.  The rain doesn't let up and it is very misty, sometime we can't even see where we climbed up from!

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After the tour we climb to the highest spot.  A good lookout and photo point.  The mist keeps coming and going, so we have to time our photos right.  And of course, there are llamas here!

There are lots of different things to see.  It is split into two main sections, the agricultural section and residential section.  There are several temples, a rock shaped like a condor, buildings, watchtowers, town squares.  Just so much to see.

After a while, about 1pm, the weather and trudging round get the better of us and we head back to the town.  We have some lunch, explore the local market before getting the train back to Ollantaytambo.  This time we slum it on the backpacker train!  Which is just as good as the other one really.

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At Ollantaytambo our bus picks us up and drives us back to Cuzco for the night. It's nice to get back to Cuzco, where it's less humid - and also back in civilisation!