The Lost City of Incas ~ Pieces of Me

Oct 2, 2010

The Lost City of Incas

The famous lost city of Incas or more well known to the rest of the world as Machu Picchu was declared as one of the new seven wonders of the world along together with Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, Petra...

Machu Picchu was rediscovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911, hidden at 2300m among the forests and mountains near to a town called Aguas Calientes. One could reached Machu Picchu through the hard way, which is trekking the Inca Trail or via train from the above town. Of course, the best experience would be trekking in Inca Trail which takes about 4-5 days and reached Machu Picchu first thing in the morning through the sun gate to experience the most amazing sunrise. However, Adri and I decided to take the easy way and took a train. We booked a 2 week tour for Peru for our last trip together before I flew back to Malaysia for good. Our tour consist mainly of older people and all English. We had an old lady who was fitter than the rest of us. She could climb more mountains and hike more trails and not even suffering from altitude sickness. Well, Adri and I were not having any of the sickness because we practically sleep all the time during the journey in the bus. We were both well known for able to sleep under all conditions :)

Anyway back to Machu Picchu, this was the highlight of the trip besides Lake Titicaca and we went into Machu Picchu for 2 days. We stayed at Aguas Calientes and took a bus up to the site each time. The entrance fee was quite expensive though (about 120 Sols) and you get a stamp on your passport, an indication that you have visited the great Machu Picchu. So make sure to bring along your passport. And bring plenty of water as there are no shops inside the site selling water or food.

inside Machu Picchu

See the mountain/big hill behind the site..it's Huayna Picchu and we hike up that on the second day

alpaca wanted to be in my photo

listening to the stories by our guide

Guardian's hut

yea..I know I post quite a lot of photos on this view..but this view is the best

sneak peak

my tour mates

We decided to hike Huayna Picchu, the big mountain next to the site. Note that the hike up to Huayna Picchu is limited to 400 visitors per day and make sure to arrive early to get a number. First 200 numbers are given out at 7am while the next 200 at 10am. However, once up there, you could view another perspective of Machu Picchu, from behind literally. A great and different view, I would say and highly recommended. We took about 2 hours hiking up and down.

Then we procceded to hike to the Sun Gate or known as Intipuku. It's another great view and one could see the winding roads leading up to the site.