Macchu Picchu

Friday the 29 of August 2008: We woke up at 4:30 so that we could feel at least a little less touristy by walking there instead of taking the bus. So at 5:15am we began our journey to Machu Picchu by climbing at least 500 stairs. At the beginning of our hike it was still dark out and it would have been beautiful to watch the sunrise from the hillside on the stairs if it hadn’t been so foggy. It took us an hour and a half total to make it from Aguas Calientes (the small tourist town in the valley) to the gate at Machu Picchu. When we arrived at Machu Picchu it was still foggy and it stayed that way until about 9:30. As we entered, we were confronted by a guide offering his services to us, so with him and a few other people we began our tour of Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is amazing. I can only wonder how these people came up with the ideas for construction and how they made it happen. The thing I found most interesting about Machu Picchu is that it was never discovered by the Spaniards. At Machu Picchu there are multiple temples because the idea of Machu Picchu was a religious one and it was all about worship and connecting with Mother Earth. My favorite spot at Machu Picchu is this room with tons of trapezoidal cubbies in the walls. These cubbies were for holding idols. If you stick your head in a cubby and someone else sticks their head in another one and you both make and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh sound at the same time you begin to hear the other person’s voice through the stone between the cubbies. It was very weird. Sinclair