Machu Picchu means old mountain and is south of Machu Picchu. Huaynapicchu is north of Machu Picchu and means young mountain.
Machu Picchu was built around 1450ad for the Inca King Pachakuteq.
They used Machu Picchu for worshiping the sun. During the winter solstice on June 24 the sun goes through the door at the sun gate and goes through a window that is a km away. In the royal tomb the sun makes a shadow and completes the inca cross.
A lot of different times a year a shaman would take out the heart of a black Lamma if the heart was red and still beating it means good luck, if the heart was not beating it means bad luck for the incas.
The inca trail was awesome and very hard it was a 4 day trek. I got to meet 11 people everyone was nice and most of the people had been hiking for a long time, more than us. Most of the people in our group had been traveling for 3 or 4 months like us. Jo and Jane were awesome and a lot of fun, Ben, Kelsey and Andrew were fun too.
Camping on the hard ground was well - hard. The bathrooms were putrid.... I am not a squatter!
Day one! we started at our hike by Ollantaytambo at 2600m and walked 12 km we camped at Wayllabamba at 3000m. It was not to hard a hike but it felt long because we had to get up early 3:30am! Lunch was the best lunch ever, we had guacamole and pasta soup and chicken with rice and vegetables mmmm. At supper we had desert bananas soaked in rum, I only had one bite and a spoonful of rum I did not like it. The view at the campsite was great! The camping in the tent on the hard ground was not my favorite.
Day 2! They wake you up at 5:30 with a cup of coca tea they bring right to your tent!
We walked Mostly UP hill today it was very steep I thought I might not make it. We got 2 breakfasts because it was a very hard day. They had salty popcorn and crackers at the second breakfast it was good! There were a LOT of stairs in the morning. We made it to 4200m from 3000m in 2 hours!!!! they call it dead woman's pass! Then we had to hike back down a lot of stairs. We hiked 11km today and camped at pacaymayo.
Day3
We got woke up again with tea again. Today was supposed to be easy the guides said it was flat but Inca flat is up and down its not Saskatchewan flat. We started at 3600m went up to Runkurakay pass at 4000m and then back down and back up to Sayacmarca 3700m and then we went down, down down! Phuyupatamarca is ruins at the start of the stairs the gringo killer!
The gringo killer is 3kms of Really big and Really small steep stone stairs to the camp site. Today was a long hike 16km. I felt like the gringo killer killed me! We camped at Winay Wayna 2700mit is only a few hours away from Machu Picchu.
Day 4 was really early we got up at 3:30 and we didn't get coca tea brought to our tent :( it is the easiest day only 6kms.
We had to get up early so we could get to in line for the gates to open. The gates open at 5:30 then everyone ran! and I mean ran everyone wanted to get to the sun gate first. I thought running to the sun gate was pointless and tiring. Just before you get to the sun gate there were these stairs that were straight up and down called the monkey stairs! I felt like a monkey crawling up them.
When we got to the sun gate we waited 10minutes for the fog to go away and then you could see Machu Picchu!!!!
It looked really close but we still had to walk 1 or 2 km before we got there.
Machu Picchu is the best wonder of the world that I have been to!
