Machu Picchu

Sorry I am getting behind on my blog posting. So this is the classic view of Machu Picchu. I went last thursday and friday, although I was only there on friday but you have to go to the town a day early so you can get in early before the crowds come. I ended up meeting a guy from Australia who was staying in my hostal and he had a tour booked so I went along with him and another American guy from New Jersey ended up coming with us too.
I had seen so many pictures of Machu Picchu I thought maybe it wouldn´t be that great but it was amazing. Actually walking around in the ruins is nothing like looking at pictures. We had a really great guide who has been giving tours for 25 years. Machu Picchu was a sacred site for the Inka and only priests, and high class important people lived there and other people did religious pilgramages there. The history is all so interesting. One of the most amazing and beautiful things about it is the location. It is surrounded by three huge mountains and a river. We hiked around and from the higher points and the peaks of some of the mountains you get the most spectacular views of the surrounding area as well as the ruins. The one main hike we did was to the sun gate which over looks all the ruins and apparently is amazing at sunrise but we were there in the afternoon. One the walk up we saw lots of llamas and managed to take some pictures with them.













I spent two more days in Cuzco, one walking around and going to some museamus and churches, the next day I went on a tour of the sacred valley, which is just the area around Cuzco with lots more ruins. When I first got to my hostal it was pretty empty but the last couple of days I was there, lots of people came. I met a bunch of people traveling on their own from, Australia, London, Manchester, San Diego, Amsterdam, and Korea and we all went out to a club one night. So I got to experience the Cuzco night life which everyone talks about. The clubs are completly geared towards tourists and so play all songs that everyone will know the words to, from oldies, to grease, to brittany spears, and everything in between. It has been nice to finally be meeting people and having other people to do things in the day with and just hang out with.