Living the Good Life: Machu Picchu and Mom

Hey Guys!

We were lucky enough to have my Mom come visit us, and the next few blogs will be about the adventures we had together:

We picked her up from the airport in Cuzco, and had a few days to just settle in and take it easy. One of the days we took a walking tour and learned all about the history of the city of Cuzco, the oldest continuously inhabited city in the Western Hemisphere (founded in 1100 ad).

Here we are standing in the Plaza De Armas, the main square.

This is in front of the 12 sided stone. It's impressive because the stone has been perfectly fit into the wall, despite having 12 angles to fit. The Incan's were master stonemasons, and knew how to make buildings resistant to earthquakes- something many modern cities struggle with even today.

The view over the city of Cuzco from the Iglesia San Cristobal. Like most of the major religious sites around the city, this was once an Inca temple that was demolished by the Spaniards at the time of colonization and a Catholic Church was built on top.

Finishing off our tour with a couple Pisco sours.

After a few days in Cuzco we started the Jungle trail to Machu Picchu, a 4 day tour that takes you through the mountains and the jungle, ending at Machu Picchu.

Day 1 consisted of biking down from the top of the Abra Malaga pass (32500 m) to the town of Santa Maria (2500 m), quite the difference. It definitely meant we really didn't have to pedal much. Here's mom decked out in all her gear, ready to ride down. You can see Willka Weqe in the background, which means Sacred Tear in Quechua and is a sacred mountain for the local people, as it was for the Incans.

We went rafting on the Urubamba River that night, but we have no pictures as it's a little hard to paddle and try not to fall in the river while holding a camera!

The next day we started a 20 km hike to Santa Teresa. Poor Mom, I hope she wasn't expecting too much 'holiday'……

Checking out some coffee plantations along the way

The Incans maintained approximately 70,000 km of foot trails (that they had either inherited or built). This is a super impressive number when you think about it. At its zenith, the empire was composed of Peru, large parts of modern Ecuador, western and south central Bolivia, northwest Argentina, north and central Chile and a small part of southwest Colombia- really massive! And what's even crazier is it was all travelled by foot and camelids (usually llamas). We walked on a trail that let to Machu Picchu, which was used mostly for day to day business. The "Inca Trail" that is famous was used for religious ceremonies.

Here we are at the viewpoint, what a fantastic view!

Pobre madre......so many stairs!

The next morning we went ziplining through a canyon, and had lots of fun.

Suspension bridge

That night we walked into Machu Picchu Pueblo, which is the small-town that basically serves as a place to stay before you visit the ruins.

Here we are walking up in the early morning (we started at 5 am) to Machu Picchu. It was over 2000 steps up, crazy to think the Incans built their city all the way up here, and would have had to carry ALL their goods up these stairs.

But we made it! Here we are right as the sun is starting to rise.

Here we are with our guide for the last few days, we called him Gato (cat in Spanish, because he apparently has multiple lives).

Ufff, sorry Mom, more stairs.

At least there's a great view at the top of all that climbing.

Speaking of which, Jared and I must be real suckers for punishment because we continued up higher-climbing the Machu Picchu mountain (2430 m). Macchu Picchu pueblo is at an elevation of 2030 m, so we had gained 400 m in steps that day.