First Sighting of Machu Picchu

Today, Mom and I hiked to Llactapata.  Llactapata was originally seen by Hiram Bingham at the same time that he found Machu Picchu.  It is a couple of fairly disappointing ruins with an amazing view of Machu Picchu.  The walk itself is very steep and slippery on the way down, so Dad wasn't able to do it with his sprained ankle, which is sad because he was really pushing to guarantee that Llactapata was included in our itinerary.

When we left camp it wasn't quite raining but the weather was not very nice.  Guido was fairly confident that it would clear up enough to see Machu Picchu from the top and he was right.  The trail up was very nice, one of the nicest we've seen on this trek.  It was my job to take pictures because Dad wasn't there.  I tried to take a lot of pictures but I think that, had he been there, Dad would have done a better job.  As we were going up we could see rain slowly coming towards us across the valley. The rain hit us just before we reached the top but when we got to Llactapata, just on the other side of the ridge, we could see Machu Picchu and it was sunny with a mostly blue sky.

The trail down was as steep or steeper than I expected with lots of mud.  It took a lot of concentration and we were all very glad when we got to the bottom of the almost flat river valley.  Hydroelectrica, the so-called town where there is a train to Aguas Calientes, is a very small village with a very big electrical station.  There, we met back up with Dad for lunch.  After lunch we said goodbye to Icidro, our cook, and got on the train.  The train was really tippy but had windows on the top with great views out of them. It seems like Aguas Calientes (the closest town to Machu Picchu) is a really ugly town in a really beautiful place.

- Brook