Machu Picchu Hasn’t Changed Much in the Last Year……

.....but then it hasn’t changed much in the past 2,000 years. But for an ancient civilization it is relatively new to us since it was only rediscovered in 1911. Of all the places I’ve been fortunate to visit I think Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, and the Pyramids in Egypt are the three most amazing things I’ve ever seen. All three have similarities and their fascination with the astrological association to earth is a common thread.

We started the trip at 4:00 am with a bus ride up into the Andes to the ancient fortress at Ollantaytambo. The trip took about 1 ½ hours and sunrise is early here so we got to see the sun come up over the peaks as we were driving through small villages and it was an interesting drive. We didn’t take the train from Cusco like we did last year since there is a worker’s strike that has the station closed there but we did catch the train at Ollantaytambo and made another 1 ½ hour trip up through the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu. Overall I thought it was more interesting this way since just riding the train gets old after a few hours.

We arrived really early and were one of the first groups into the park. Amazingly we got the same guide as we had last year and did about a 2 ½ hour guided tour of the ruins. Since I had done this last year I was able this time to concentrate on just the things I found interesting and this was a lot more meaningful this time. It was a much smaller group this year and at the end of the tour most of us climbed up to the guard house overlooking the ruins where the most spectacular views are.

Since I posted on the blog extensively about Machu Picchu last year I’m just going to include some new photos here.