Galapagos Islands and Peru part 5 Machu Picchu

The main ruins as seen from Intipunka (the Sun Gate)

Tuesday morning we had a short bus ride to Ollanta station where we boarded the train for the ride to Machu Picchu. The train was much nicer than what we were expecting and the ride was about an hour and a half. All along the ride on the train we saw Inca ruins and terraces.

On the train with BJ and Rollin

We then took a bus up to the gate at Machu Picchu, our hotel was just outside the gate, less than a two minute walk.  We had a complementary tea and immediately went to the site. Forget Disney, this is the Magical Kingdom. The scene was helped by the clouds around the mountains.  Unfortunately, they soon began to empty.  I was getting so wet that I put my camera away and got out my waterproof camera. It is hard to describe this so in a bit, I'll let the pictures to the talking. As the rain was ending it was time to go to the hotel to check in and have lunch. It didn't take long to to dry and after lunch I went for a dry walk and then came back to the hotel. Behind my room was a beautiful garden and orchid walk. It was very nice and the hummers are larger than here at home.  On my afternoon walks, I found some nice quite areas and sat and thought how much Connie would have enjoyed this trip and especially today. 

I started Wednesday with a short walk around the site.  I had told a group that I might meet them for the walk to the sun gate; a walk of about two and a half hours that was very steep.  Finishing my walking around below, I figured I'd start up on my own.  Being the oldest in the group, I believed this would keep me from slowing the others down.  I started up and rested, walked some more and rested, and to make a long story a little shorter, met the group about two-thirds of the way up. I was coming down already. We left just before noon, had lunch at a nice restaurant near the railroad and then went back to another nice suprise in Cusco.

I've so many pictures to put in here because I had a difficult time doing much eliminating. All that follows here are the pictures.  I should have said this before, but if you click on any picture that one will come up and the others are thumbnails that you can click on as you like. Hope you enjoy these.

                                                                                                                        

You can see the road we drove up on the bus.

The group I was going to walk up with: Carol, Percy our guide, Francie, Carol and Tommy.