Me and roommate Carson set our alarms at the early hour of 4:30 to prepare for our bus to Machu Picchu. Getting to the mountain ruins is quite the trip, and from Cusco it involved three legs. The first was a bus at 5 from the city to the train station. This took two hours and involved some bumpy backroads. After the bus came the train ride, which was equally as adventurous. The train wound around mountains for an hour and a half before we arrived at the town Aguas Calientes, which literally means hot springs. There are hot springs there but we were so hot from all the walking throughout the day that we never explored them. After the train ride came another bus, one that would take us all the way to the entrance to Machu Picchu. It wound up and down the mountain with no guard rails, but offered an amazing view of the Andes mountains.

   As expected the entrance to Machu Picchu itself was flooded with tourists. We met up with our guides and started to walk up to the ruins. The view was absolutely breathtaking. We learned a couple of things right off the bat that surprised me. First off, the mountain behind the ruins is actually called Hayma Picchu. Machu Picchu is the summit behind the ruins, that no one sees in the pictures. In addition, we don’t know what the ruins are even called, but the best guess has something to do with a condor, due to the shape of the city layout and carvings in the ruins. Finally, the Machu Picchu that we are all used to, clearly seen from the view from above, with the amazing Andes mountains in the background, is not how it always was. When discovered, the ruins were completely covered by trees and forest. We spent two hours exploring the ruins and learning about reasons it was used by the Incas. The question we all had on our minds, was why would someone in their right mind decide to build a city in an impossible places to reach. Obviously it was easily defended, but they also studied astronomy in the moon temple, a building at the very top of Hayma Picchu.

   After the tour of the ruins, we decided to hike part of the Inca Trail, up to the Temple del Sol. The actual Inca Trail covered four countries, but the one that current people hike takes around four days. Our hike was only and hour or so both ways, faster on the way down than up. Even after being in high altitudes for almost a week, we were panting much more than normal, while  the guides casually jogged and then waited for us on the trail. We learned that the trail is curved into a “U” so the messengers of the Inca could bounce off of the rocks. When we reached the Temple del Sol, we were much higher than the ruins, and had another beautiful view of the Andes. We encountered some hikers on their last leg of their journey on the Inca Trail. If I ever make it back to Cusco that is first on my to-do list. On the way back I stopped and had a picnic with the greatest view of all time, however the food that I had bought at the grocery store the day before was subpar. The hike was rewarding, and a great way to end the day at the ruins. We repeated the journey home, and arrived around ten ready to sleep for at least a full day.