We descended down the final steps of our journey and into the heart of this magical place for the rest of the day.
Our main guide Carlos gave us a private tour of the complex, hitting all of the major places. The three primary structures at Machu Picchu are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. You'll notice a couple of pictures of people on ladders. They are scrubbing the stones with toothbrushes to keep the them free of lichen. If not constantly maintain, this site would be overgrown with jungle in a few short years.
The third picture in this row is taken at the base of the temple of the sun. As I mentioned in an previous post, the Inca worshiped "Inti", the Sun god, as their supreme deity. This temple was built right on top of a natural cave/rock on the site. This is significant because the Inca believed the first of their kings entered this world through caves. Notice how straight, smooth, and tight the joints of these stones are. The Inca spent extra time making sure that these stones used in holy places were perfectly cut and arranged.
These pictures are of the cave below the Temple of the Sun (check out the hourglass stonework), the Condor Stone, and the outside wall of the Temple of the Sun.
The first two pictures are of the Inti Watana stone located at one of the highest points of the site. It is one of many ritual stones in South America. These stones are arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstice. The name Inti Watana is literally meant to be a place to "tie up the sun", translated in English as "The Hitching Post of the Sun". The Inca believed the stone held the sun in its place along its annual path in the sky. At midday on 11 November and 30 January, the sun stands almost exactly above the pillar, casting no shadow. On 21 June, the stone casts the longest shadow on its southern side, and on 21 December a much shorter shadow on its northern side. Structures like this and others that line up with the solstices are great examples of how well the Inca understood and revered the sun and its movement.
The above picture is of our two main guides, Carlos (left) and Emerson (right). In case you're wondering what it looks like when millennials first have access to the internet after 4 days of being disconnected, this picture from the cafe at Machu Picchu says it all. After a very early start to the day we caught one of the last trains out of Aguas Calientes, the town located at the base of Machu Picchu.
After a late train ride back to Ollayataytambo, and and even later bus ride back to our hotel in Cusco, we finally got to sleep at about 1 a.m. We were probably awake and hiking for traveling for 20 - 21 hours. The next day we woke up early, did some last minute souvenir shopping in Cusco, then headed back to the airport for our eventual red eye flight from Lima to Miami, then to Dallas, then to Colorado Springs.
After 12 days of traveling we had arrived back home with the kids safe and sound, filled with some pretty unforgettable memories of Compassion children and projects, Peru, the Inca Trail, and Machu Picchu.