The Inca city of Machu Pichu remained hidden in the jungle until its re-discovery in 1911 by archeologist Hiram Bingham. Today it's arguably the main reason people visit Peru.

The city of Machu Pichu (the actual ruins, more on this in a bit!) is best reached from Cusco. There are enough things to do in Cusco itself, but the train typically leaves from here. Some people also opt to take the train from Ollantaytambo, so they can visit that town and shorten the train ride. The train ride from Cusco to Ollantaytambo takes a bit of time because the train tracks were built to zigzag around the urban features.

The train then heads to the town of Aguas Calientes, which is sometimes called "the town of Machu Pichu". This is a bit confusing because the actual ruins is *technically* the town of Machu Pichu (approximately 1 1/2 h walk up from Aguas Calientes). From Aguas Calientes there are buses that leave for the ruins as early as 5:30 in the morning.

The ticket to the ruins now has to be pre-purchased in Aguas Calientes. This allows 1 full day of entry into the site, so the day better be nice!.

We arrived at Aguas around 11 in the morning, on a warm, sunny day. Luke and I wanted to go and hike to the ruins, but Tom and Marj wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing. We ended up spending a day around town and relaxing in our hostel, which had a great view of the surroundings. Luke and I were secretly wishing for it not to rain the next day.

The next morning, it was immediately evident that a view of the sun rising over the ruins was unlikely. Fuck! We could make out bits and parts of the site, and sometimes the outline of Huayna Pichu (2667 m), the mountain that overlooks the ruins. We decided to walk through the site, through the fog.

Walking through the streets and touching the walls, you begin to understand and realize where you are: a city built by a civilization with the patience, the knowledge to build a city this immense, with wall patterns, laid in perfection like organic Lego blocks. Yet, no piece of modern machinery was used to cut these stones, to errect these structures.

The walls in Cusco that imitate these Inca walls pale in comparison. In the movie "The Motorcycle Diaries", there is a scene where a Peruvian kid points and identifies an Inca-built wall, and subsequently points to a wall built by the Spanish. The boy proceeds to identify these walls as built by the "Inca-pables".

View the photos of Machu Pichu and The Sacred Valley.