Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Machu Picchu

Where do I start, how can you describe the incredible beauty of an ancient Inca Machu Picchu surrounded by snow capped Andes Mts.? Jacob and I awoke early to catch the bus at 5:15 from Agua Calientes to Machu Picchu. As we ascended into the ruins you were met with the breathtaking site of terraced ruins , rock walls and structures indicating a whole society had lived there. There were houses, temples, storage houses, water systems and grazing llamas. Your imagination of a time past came alive as you absorbed the magnificence of Machu Picchu . We spent 8 hours walking up rock steps that Inca´s had cut from the stone and then used in the late 1400´s. We saw their temple, the area where they sacrificed llamas and guinea pig, their amazing architectural and rock cutting skills, we saw wild chinchillas, we saw where a society of Inca´s lived. Absolutely amazing and I believe we took over 400 pictures and hopefully I´ll post a few before I finish this entry.
We explored Machu Picchu for a couple of hours by ourselves and then had a three hour guided tour. Because of a train strike no tourists could get up to the ruins unless they got to Agua Calientes yesterday so there were probably less than 400 tourists exploring the area compared to a usual 1600 tourists.After our guided tour we rested on an ancient wall as llamas grazed no more than four feet from me.
My new knee and arthritic foot held out well and I didn´t miss anything at Machu Picchu, I climbed up and down every path there was, sometimes a little slower than others but I did it and I was amazed at how good a shape I seemed to be in having no problem with all the exertion and the altitude.(maybe my rail walking helped)
I am so thankful God has given me this opportunity to explore another part of his world and to share this experience with my son, Jacob.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm so jealous!

Anonymous said...

Glad your having the time of your life... interesting way to put your new knee to the test Kim!! LOL.

Kurt and Alisha said...

Sounds like so much fun! Can't wait to see pictures of you amazing adventures!

Marti said...

Wonderful! I think about you every day. I'm so glad you get to do this. You GO GIRL!