Machu Picchu – the crown jewel of the Inca Empire

There were bigger Inca cities back in the day, but nothing matches Machu Picchu when in comes to location.

Talk about epic, “the lost city” sits in the saddle of these high altitude jungle peaks. Getting there was interesting. Unfortunately we didn’t hike the Inca Trail, we took the train to Aguas Caliente and hiked from there.

Sandy crossing the river before we started up… staight up. It’s only an hour hike from the river, but it’s an hour of steep stone stairs. We only saw 2 other people hiking the steps that morning, which was nice because Machu Picchu draws a steady flow of tourist. The Average is 1,000/day, with a limit of 2500.

After getting to Machu Picchu, we followed a trail leading to the Inca draw bridge. I had no idea what to expect, but it sounded cool. We came around one corner of the trail and I saw this one huge cliff:

Notice the tiny ribbon of green in the middle. Thats the trail! here’s a closer look:

Yeah not much there… Unbelievable. The bridge is on the near side of the cliff.

Beyond the bridge the trail has not been restored, that would be hairy job to say the least.

The city plan is immense, there are hundreds of structures. It’s difficult to fathom how Machu Picchu was built. It must have taken many lifetimes for thousands of Incas.