After the 30 minute, windy, switchback road back up the mountain we started our tour of Machu Picchu. What an absolute wonder that place is! The Incas were an amazing civilization with so much advanced skill, all without a written language or a knowledge of the wheel.
Their standard building had steep pitched roofs for easy rain run-off, windows and walls with a slight angle to create an earthquake proof structure (these centuries-old buildings and walls have withstood some serious earthquakes over the years!), mortar made of clay and llama hair, and for residential buildings, windows that always face the east for a natural alarm clock.
Temples had large stones that were meticulously fit together without any mortar, or tools for that matter. They were shaped with different sized rocks and moved with rollers and human strength until the fit is perfect.
Terraces had two purposes, to hold earth in place to avoid landslides (there is a lot of rain!) and farming. Each terrace has levels of natural material that helps rain drain into the ground. There are terraces at all levels of the mountainside, as different crops grow at different elevations. They also had filter systems for running water that was running through the whole city. According to our native guide, this was a mecca-like city for the Inca people. All buildings and walls would have been plastered and painted with flowers and birds. Gold and silver and bronze were not seen as valuable, but as a way to create beauty, so temples were often covered in pure gold. Orchids were grown for beauty and for offerings, so there were entire orchid gardens everywhere. I wish I could see it in its glory with all those magnificent Andes mountains standing like sentinels around this marvelous city!
I'll admit that our overall stamina sort of petered out during the Machu Picchu tour, which is too bad because I had read a lot and wanted to soak in so many details, but it was hot and there were people everywhere and unfortunately we all were pretty much done. So we made our way back to Aguas Calientes on the bus and spent a few hours before we caught a train back to Ollantaytambo, got a bus/van ride back to Cusco and checked in to a very nice Marriott hotel. Oh sweet bliss. We ate dinner at a vegan restaurant called My Green Point that was so delicious and charming and NOT rice and beans. Oh how we slept well in those Marriott beds!
On our last day we slept in a bit, repacked everything for the fifth time in Peru, took BinaxNow Covid tests, which was so easy and awesome, and headed to the hotel breakfast where we met Panchito the alpaca baby.
Can you even handle how adorable?! We ran into him out on the street later with another tinier guy. And we marveled at more Inca walls and wished we had three more days just to shop in all the shops and wander those cobblestone streets.
After 12 nights, sleeping in 7 different places; 8 different flights (one of them a red-eye, two of them red-eyes for Adele), with 4 or more canceled flights along the way; 2 trains; 4 bus rides; 3 boat transports; 1 vomit and 1 round of antibiotics for diarrhea, we were ready to go home and take a shower and do some laundry and sleep.
But all of us can agree that we left a piece of our hearts in Peru.
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