Machu Picchu - Visit Number One

There are few things that can compare to the mystery, historical value, and beauty of Machu Picchu. For those of you who are not familiar, Machu Picchu is one of the most well-known and most visited set of ancient ruins in the world, and has been labelled a World Heritage site and one of the wonders of the world.

Everyday thousands of people visit this archaeological wonder. There are so many people that visit the ruins that the Peruvian government has become concerned about the wear-and-tear of the site and has limit the number of daily visitors to 2500 people a day, and that still sounds like a lot!

On August1 we became part of those 2500 people and finally saw the wonder of Machu Picchu. We went with our super awesome friends Julie, Kaley, and Gina. The experience was in one word, awesome. Many believe that the ruins are actually pre-incan, that the incan people got there and thought, wow, this is a pretty cool place, lets check it out, actually lets just live here, I'm sure we'll get used to the altitude. Machu Picchu has this really iconic mountain in the background that you see in all the Machu Picchu pictures called Huaynapicchu, which actually has it's own set of ruins on the very top. We luckily got tickets to not only hike Machu Picchu, but Huaynapicchu as well. When you're up there you wonder how in the world people could have lived up that high, precariously teetering on the edge of sheer cliffs.

The photos, as beautiful as they are, really don't do the ruins justice, because it's not just the ruins that are amazing, it's the altitude, the sounds, the plants, and the wondering how it was all done, wrapped into a feeling; I highly recommend it.