Perurail Train- en route to Ollyantaytambo/Cusco 5:27 PM

What a day! I learned so much about Machu Picchu I thought my brain was going to explode!

The day started at 5:45 with our wake up call. We packed last night so it didn't take very long to get ready this morning. Our bags were out by 6:10 and we went to breakfast. They didn't have the yummy chicken pieces like yesterday so I settled for eggs, fruit and cake.

We got on the bus around 6:45 to head to the Ollytaytambo train station. It was about 20 mins. from our hotel. Edgard gave us our bus return ticket, our train ticket and our Machu Picchu tickets. We also needed our passports.

We got on the train and found our seats. Our train car had glass in the ceiling so we could see the mountains and scenery. We began our 1 1/2 hour ride to Aguas Calientes, which is the town where you catch your bus up to the entrance of Machu Picchu.

The ride up was very scenic. The mountains were huge and covered with trees. There was also a river below us. It was awesome to be able to see it all through the side windows and also through the windows above us.

When we arrived at the train station, we did a bathroom stop and regrouped. We had to walk through a handicrafts market and down a hill a little ways to the Agua Calientes bus station. We all got in a line of people boarding the buses and got on the next one heading up to the entrance.

The bus ride was bumpy and full of twists and turns on a one way road. As we got higher, we could start to see the majestic mountain range that is a part of the Amazon. What was even cooler was right behind the lush, green, tree filled mountains was that in the distance were even higher snow capped mountains. It was such an interesting thing to see both near each other.

When we reached the entrance, we did one more bathroom stop, as there were no bathrooms inside the monument. We regrouped again and went to the entrance where they check your passport and your ticket.

We got through and walked up to the steps to our first meeting point. A nice touch to the start of our day was seeing a llama and her baby roaming around the grass. I was then drawn to the scene before me: the Incan ruins. Of course I started my picture taking right away. It was crazy to see it all right in front of me after seeing it in pictures and on TV many times before.

Edgard started our 3 hour tour by welcoming us and sharing some of the history. He would continue to do this for the next few hours, repeatedly "blowing our minds" with information he learned from his 8 years of schooling to be a guide, as well as his further education and research as a historian and archaeologist. He spent the time also dispelling many common myths/misinformation that people believe about "Machu Picchu." The following are some things I learned... It is a lot to remember so I hope I didn't mess any info. up:

- technically, what we all consider Machu Picchu is actually just called"Picchu." Machu Picchu is actually the mountain to the north. This is according to Spanish documentation.
- Picchu was built by the Incas but was never finished. In fact, it was only 30% completed. This is evidenced by many structures only being partially built.
- Picchu was sort of a "planned community" that really never came to be. There were structures made for the middle class and upper class. The upper class structures/homes were made of solid granite stones weighing 150-200 lbs. each stacked on each other. The middle class homes were 80% stone, 20% clay. The lower class ones were 20% stone, 80% clay.
- the structures have trapezoidal shapes. This is because Picchu is on a fault line. The trapezoidal shapes would not fall apart in an earthquake and were considered structurally sound. However, an 8.5 scale earthquake could destroy the whole thing.
- Picchu was not abandoned because of conquistadors. That came later. Small pox wiped out 70% of the Incan population.
- Picchu was not considered isolated. There are 7 Inca trails that lead to/from there. The Spanish knew about it and had documented it. It was "rediscovered" a couple times. Once, buy 2 Peruvians, who carved their name in stone and took many artifacts and sold them on the black market. Again, it was "rediscovered" in 1911 by Hiram Bingham. He is given much of the credit because he documented it and took pictures of it and is credited with sharing information with the world about his "discovery" without stealing/disrupting the site.
-the Incans believed in many gods. They believed the four mountains surrounding Picchu were protectors of it.
- it is apparent that Picchu was never fully inhabited because the sacred/holy structures were never fully completed. The Incas would never have lived in a place without access to the places they deemed holy places of worship.
- the mountain where Picchu is located used to be much taller. The Incas basically made it a flat top and then created terraces. Their technology was extremely advanced for their time.

I'm sure as I think about it I will remember more facts but these ones stick out to me the most.

After our guides tour, we had 45 minutes to wander by ourselves. We made our way up the steep steps to the top view point where Mimj and I proceeded to take a bunch of pictures. I purposely wore my A's shirt today so I could take some cool pictures to share with my A's fan friends back home.

After pictures, we walked to the exit where we got a cool Machu Picchu stamp in our passports. We then boarded the bus back to town. When we got back into town, we found a restaurant that had "Mexican" food. It immediately caught my eye. It was a bit more expensive than other meals because it was a tourist town. I was tired and hungry and didn't care so we sat and ordered. Plus, they had free wifi!

I ordered a a chicken taco plate. It was definitely not like tacos back home but it was so good that it was gone in a matter of minutes. After our waitress took forever to take our payment, we decided to walk through the shops and head back to the train staton.

We found some cute things in the market but no one was willing to bargain so we gave up. We met the rest of our group and boarded our train at 4:00.

We had a great train ride back. I was tired but didn't feel like sleeping. It was nice just looking out the window and enjoying the scenery. When we got to the train station an hour and 40 minutes later, we had a bathroom break again and got on our bus. We had about a 2 hour drive to our hotel in Cusco.

About 15 minutes in to the bus ride, one of the guys in our tour ran up to the front of the bus and told the driver to stop. He stopped and opened the door and the guy barfed on the side of the road. His mom said he threw up earlier and thought he ate something bad. Luckily he didn't do it again.

About 20 minutes later, we were slowed down because there was a line of cars stopped. We pulled up to try to go around and saw an old man laying in the street with blood coming out of the back of his head. I'm pretty sure he wasn't alive.

We got to the hotel around 8:45. After getting our keys, we headed to our room that had 2 nice queen sized beds and a mini fridge! It's the little things that can help make you happy.

We got ready for bed and laid out our clothes for tomorrow's tour of Cusco. I don't know if anything can too today but I am really looking forward to it!