Thursday, December 13, 2012

Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu

Wednesday: We rode in a train to Aguas Calientes- 3 1/2 hours away. A train ride is the only way to get into this small city, and it was not cheap but it was a beautiful ride! We checked in at our hostel (we shared a room with Dani and Derek this time), had lunch and walked around the beautiful city. 


We went to the butterfly museum and took a tour to see exactly how they are made and each step of becoming a butterfly. The tour was in Spanish, so Brad had to translate for us. It was pretty interesting, but we only saw one butterfly, because they free them once they become butterflies.
We also walked across the bridge to the start of Machu Picchu to check it out a bit and to see the stairs that you can walk up to the top. Looked too intense for me!

Thursday: We took a 30 minute bus ride up to Machu Picchu. The bus ride up was a little scary because it was on a very narrow road with lots of switch-backs, but we were pretty used to scary bus rides by that time. We hiked up to Waynapicchu and it was hard- but definitely worth it! I really have no words for these pictures other than it was beautiful and I loved every minute of being there. (warning: there are a ton of pictures!)













We also hiked over to the Inca bridge. The trail is blocked off so you can't walk on it- but I wouldn't have anyways.
 On the train ride back to Cusco, we got a yummy dinner and the workers put on a fashion show. This creepy guy did some dancing for us and guess who he chose to dance with him?? yup.. I swear I always get picked for embarrassing things like that.

3 comments:

Kylee said...

oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I want to go there SOOOOO bad! It's so beautiful and just amazing! Those pictures where you are hanging on to the edge of a cliff look so real (I hope you weren't ACTUALLY hanging on to the edge of a cliff like that!) and does the picture after that show the swithcbacks you went on in the bus, or was that a hiking trail? Don't worry about answering all these questions, I'll just ask them again when we see your formal presentation. Oh and I can't believe you got picked {again} to dance with that guy! That's so funny! I'm SOO glad that you were able to have this amazing experience.

Stacy said...

How amazing! I definately want to go there someday! I bet you are so glad to be home! Have a Merry Christmas!

Lindsey said...

Your photos are so awesome I could cry!!! I wish I had gone during the days of digital cameras and picasa editing. I love all of your poses, and your wardrobe as well, it's great color contrast and you look rockin!!!