Llamas at Machu Picchu~

Being an animal lover, I enjoyed the llamas running free at Machu Picchu. They are the oldest and longest inhabitants of Machu Picchu. They are not intimidated by human visitors and although they don't want to be touched, they will let you up close to take pictures.

When I was taking this picture, the llama was on a level about to my shoulders and I was on the lower part. The llama was grazing and I was shooting pictures. I was moving around and he/she was just nonchalanting grazing. There were some steps and I moved in front of the steps to get a little closer. He/she decided to come down to my level and I was in front of the steps, blocking the way. She paused, looked at me, looked at the steps, turned to the wall, and jumped down. She (he) landed, buckled her legs a bit, and hopped up and strode off continuing to graze.

Two days before we visited Machu Picchu, there was a baby llama born! Although this isn't a great picture, you can see him on his still wobbly little legs. That's his mother in the lower right hand corner. Needless to say, he doesn't ressemble his mother.
The area that mother and baby were in was more of an enclosed pen and people weren't allowed up close.

I love the expressiveness of the llama in this picture. The taller one displayed the typical aloof attitude of most of the llamas. The one in front looked at me as though to say, "Whatchu lookin' at?"

Here you can see llamas grazing on the agricultural terraces.

Here we are leaving Machu Picchu and you can see Grant telling the llama good-bye. The llama did not want to appear interested in Grant.

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Huayna Picchu

From this view at Machu Picchu you can see Huayna Picchu in the distance. Machu Picchu means "old peak" in Quechua and Huayna Picchu means "young peak". Look closely at Huayna Picchu and the small peak to the left of it. It is said that the two peaks together ressemble a reclining side view of an Inca. We were also told that from Huayna Picchu to the right is the representation of the puma, one of the sacred levels of the Inca religion. I think Huayna Picchu represents the condor and the Rio Urubamba, which curls around the base of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu, represents the snake. The three levels, the condor, which represents the afterlife, the puma, which represents the present, and the snake, which represents the underworld, are all represented in most Inca structures.

400 people a day are allowed to climb Huayna Picchu and if you want to be one of them, you must go directly to the Huayna Picchu entrance gate and acquire a ticket as soon as you get to Machu Picchu. We did that---in retrospect, I wish we wouldn't have made that rush. First of all, on the day we went, there wasn't a crowd at Machu Picchu and I don't think 400 people even made the climb and secondly, rushing through the gates to get to the other side took away some of the serenity of the experience of just being at Machu Picchu. But, we got in line before 7:00 to get our tickets. The first group of 200 is admitted to Huayna Picchu at 10:00 and the second group at noon.

We decided we would make the 10:00 group, so after we got our tickets, we took our time to leisurely retrace our steps across Machu Picchu. We went up to the guardhouse for the standard post card view and pictures.

Just before we were to go up Huayna Picchu, Grant was not feeling well and decided that he would stay and rest. I decided to go ahead with the climb---mostly because I wanted to see how it compared to our hike up Putukusi the day before.

In the picture above, you can see the trail as it crosses from Machu Picchu to Huayna Picchu. Follow it starting in the lower right hand corner, up through the middle, and finally up to the upper left hand side of the picture. It was about here that I started thinking I really didn't know if I wanted to go ahead with the climb. The clouds were starting to come in and it wasn't going to be an easy hike.

Here is one view of the trail---mostly just stone steps---steep stone steps. That's a person at the top. It was very misty and that made everything very slick.

Another view of the steps was previously posted with the pictures of stairs at Machu Picchu.

Well, here I am at the top! Yes, that's the view. An hour climb and this is the prize. There are ruins at the top---more buildings, but with the clouds and mist, I didn't try to take many pictures.

The clouds did break up a bit while I was at the top. Look through them and you can faintly make up Machu Picchu. I didn't want to spend a lot of time up there because I felt that I was missing precious time in Machu Picchu, and Grant was there.

More Machu Picchu views...

In this view of Machu Picchu you can see the extensive agricultural terracing on the front side. At the top of the photo is the Caretakers Hut, probably used for guard duty. This is the Principal Temple, where many of the important functions were held. In this picture you can see some of the deterioration that is happening at Machu Picchu. While we were there we were told that a team of scientists from Japan was studying the effects of tourists and the environment. The study is to be finished sometime this year and if the results show that deterioration is serious, they may recommend to close Machu Picchu for 10 years so steps can be taken to reverse the damage and prevent further damage.

I was interested in the various forms of walls and buildings that could be seen at Machu Picchu. In this picture you see a triangular wall made with smaller stones. Note the thickness of the wall and the trapezodial window.

Here is a double thickness door. The room that it encloses probably held something important. All of the windows and doors designed by the Inca were trapezoids.

This is the rock quarry. The large unused stones sit waiting to be used in building.

More views of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is such an awesome place and no matter how many pictures you see, you can't really appreciate its beauty unless you visit. But, I tried to capture some of that beauty in my pictures and felt successful in some.

This picture conveys a little of the feel of surrealness that you feel when visiting Machu Picchu. The cloud forest hanging over the Andes in the background, the beauty of the nearly perfect remains of the stone buildings, the feeling of being suspended in air are all in this picture for me.

The area portrayed is called the Industrial Sector.

This is the Main Portal. I believe it receives that designation because it is the entry into the most revered part of the city, where the temples, the Intihuantana stone, etc. are located.

Look closely at the door and you can appreciate the precision with which the Inca construction was done. All of the stones were put together without mortar!!! And they fit together so closely that a piece of paper cannot go between them.

To the right of the portal you can see the sacred peak Putukusi.


In this view you see the rock on which the Intihuantana stone sits. This part of Machu Picchu is carved out of a large stone -- see the lower, middle section. If you remember from a previous post, the Intihuantana stone was considered to connect the Inca to the heavens.

In this view you can see some of the agricultural terraces. This is where the Inca grew their crops and where their llamas and alpacas grazed. Imagine as you look at this picture constructing those walls on the side of the mountain---and fitting together those stones with no mortar!

Machu Picchu- miscellaneous views

The Intihuatana, a sacred stone at Machu Picchu, is shown here. Inti is the Inca sun god and Huana means "hitching post". So, this is the "hitching post to the sun". The Inca believed that this stone was sacred and gave off powers. Many visitors today believe that it has a spiritual aura. It is blocked from touching because of the damage that constant contact can have. In recent years, filming crews that were allowed on location at Machu Picchu damaged the stone by dropping a camera boom and cracking the stone. Two times a year, at fall and spring equinoxes, March 21 and September 21, the sun stands directly overhead. This room is named "Room of Three Windows". The windows show a view to three sacred peaks which surround Machu Picchu. It is believed that Pachacuti stayed in this room when he was at Machu Picchu.

This is a view of the fountains. The fountains, which still work today, provided water, but many were used for bathing. There are 16 fountains at Machu Picchu. This view is from the top looking down. The uppermost fountain was believed to be used by Pachacuti for ritual bathing. The more important you were, the higher up you were allowed to bath. Some of the fountains even have indentations which would look like cubicles for soaps.... At the bottom of this picture you can see the Rio Urubamba.

This room is called the Temple of the Condor. The condor was sacred to the Inca as it was believed to be connected to the afterlife. The three levels of Inca life were represented by the snake (the underworld), the puma (the present), and the condor (the heavens). The stone formation on the ground in this room is meant to represent the condor.

This view shows the backside of Machu Picchu as it descends down to the Rio Urubamba.

Stairs at Machu Picchu

Visiting Machu Picchu means climbing lots of stairs---up and down and up and down. There's really no way to avoid it. It's fun to notice all the different kinds of steps the Incas made.
These steps were made with many stones laid together.

Large flat stones make this stairway.
Notice Rio Urubamba at the bottom.

This stairway is made by using the stones as the edge of the stair, with the "tread" just dirt and grass.


This set of steps let up Huyana Picchu. They were basically large blocks of stone.

Machu Picchu!

On the morning of our visit to Machu Picchu, we arose at 4:30 a.m., got dressed, had a little breakfast (I don't even remember what we had) and headed to catch the bus to Machu Picchu. We initially had planned to hike in from Aguas Calientes to capture some of the sense of hiking the Inca Trail, but after hiking Putukusi the day before, we decided that we didn't need that experience. We would have had to leave at 3:30 a.m. to arrive at opening, 7:00, and felt that it may have been a little much.
There were what seemed to be hundreds of people in line for the buses and I thought, "Oh, great, we will have to deal with crowds all day long....", but amazingly, once we arrived, everyone seemed to disperse and crowds were not an issue. The bus ride was a twisty, turny ride on hairpin curves on a dirt road. I am amazed at the skill of the bus drivers. Everyone seemed full of anticipation and I know that although I tried to relax, I was not wanting to miss anything. I plan to post many pictures of Machu Picchu, since it was the most important part of my trip, so I hope not to bore you.

Well---here we are...Machu Picchu!!! ---the climax of the trip! It was everything I had imagined, and more! It was beautiful, mystical, other-worldly... amazing! I think we were very lucky to have gone during the off season, when it wasn't overrun by tourists.

This picture shows Machu Picchu at around 7:30 a.m. when we first arrived. You can see in the middle a room that is being renovated, the Temple of the Sun. I did some photoshopping on this picture in another view and erased the tarps, etc., but, in this picture you see it exactly as we saw it. The wispy clouds hanging over the Andes mountains added to the ethereal quality of the site. What amazed me most was how quiet everyone was. It was as though everyone could feel the spirituality.

Here's a picture of Grant and me with Machu Picchu in the background.

This is the sacred Inca mountain, Putukusi, which Grant and I hiked yesterday. The part we hiked was on the back side, away from what you can see here, but if you look at the very top, that's where we ended up and got the cloud shrouded view of Machu Picchu.

The llamas are the only official residents of Machu Picchu. They seem very happy in their home and not at all intimidated by the visitors.

In this picture you can see the part of Machu Picchu called the Industrial Sector with Mount Putukusi in the background.

Another view of Machu Picchu with the agricultural terraces in the background.