We managed to get up and have breakfast - an extremely uninspired breakfast - by 7:30, and got up to MP at about 8. Joffre wasn't feeling very well, and we were worried that he wouldn't make it, but he held on quite well. It was gorgeous going up to the ruin in the bus; riotous flowers seemed to be springing straight from the cliff walls, out of the thick jungle foliage. Once at the top, we could not see any of the ruin for the clouds and fog. But, as we rounded a bend in the path, the clouds parted slightly, and we got our first unforgettable glimpse of Machu Picchu.
It really is an amazing place. No matter how many pictures you've seen of it, you're never quite ready for seeing it in person. The most amazing thing, to me, was how much the ruin really looked like it had sprung fully formed out of the pages of National Geographic. I don't think you could take a bad, or even an ordinary, picture of MP if you tried. It impacted everyone, even Joffre, who still talks about it.
We hired a guide and embarked on a three-hour-long tour of the site. I won't give you the blow-by-blow, but if you're interested in learning more about MP, click here. Some of the highlights for me were simply the amazing scenery, the unbelievable masonry, and the Temple of the Condor.
After our tour, we ate lunch in the buffet restaurant of the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge. It was an amazing meal, the best buffet I think I've ever had, and someday when I'm fabulously rich and the children are older, we will come back to Peru and stay at this hotel, too - hey, it's only US$715 a night!! The hotel, like the train from Puno and a number of other attractions and services in this neck of the woods, is run by the Orient Express company.
We finished eating and wandered back into the ruins. Aaron went off to explore and hopefully climb to the top of Huayna Picchu (the big mountain that sticks up at the end of MP). Al and Ron decided to walk back to town, and Mary, Verna and I stayed and played on a grassy terrace with the children for a while, before catching a bus back to town. Joffre fell asleep on the bus ride, and Verna heroically carried him from the bus back to our hotel.
Eventually Aaron turned up, tired and thirsty, and we went for a bite of dinner before we all collapsed.
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