We woke up early to see Machu Picchu without too many people and felt well rewarded. This place is magnificent. The archeological site is interesting, the stonework impressive, but it is the setting that is absolutely spectacular! Steep cliffs all around, gorgeous rock spires jutting up from the jungle valley floor to gaze at, almost totally encircled by the meander in the Urubamba River far below, it is drop dead gorgeous. We came here with high expectations and we’re far from disappointed.We’ve had a tenuous week of weather. Fortunately, today we had blue sky peeking through the forest clouds that have haunted us throughout our 5-day Salkantay Trek getting to this point.
Huayna Picchu is the mountain behind Machu Picchu that one sees in all the typical postcard shots. We loved hiking up its very steep trail to the top, which afforded us great aerial views of Machu Picchu from a different perspective. Though lots of people were up there it didn’t take away too much from the experience.
In late afternoon, we took the train from Aquas Calientes to Ollantaytambo. The mountain views straight up through the windows in the roof make this our best train trip ever. Half way through the trip the train stewards gave us a fashion show featuring expensive alpaca garments for sale. This was very odd but quite entertaining.
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