Journey to Machu Picchu!!!

Machu Picchu. . . the lost city of the Incan civilization. . .
Visions of this place have haunted my dreams ever since I first learned about it and saw pictures, and I knew I had to go there someday!

We did not book the hike on the Inca Trail, because we wanted to have more time to see other parts of Peru as well. It turned out it was a good thing we didn't book the hike, since I turned out to be pregnant and that wouldn't have worked out so well. :) Instead, we booked the train from Cuzco with an overnight stay in the town of Aguas Calientes, at the base of Machu Picchu. Normally you can take the train all the way from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes, but some of the rails were still being rebuilt from flooding, so our alternative was a bone-shatteringly bumpy and extremely EARLY bus ride for part of the way, until we could actually board the Perurail train. It was a really miserable bus ride, but nothing could dampen my enthusiasm once we actually got on the Perurail train and headed up to Machu Picchu. We were EXCITED!

We got some nice pictures of the beautiful scenery from the train:

*Aguas Calientes is a cute little town, with river flowing right through the middle.

*Our guided tour of Machu Picchu took several hours, and we got to walk all around it and see everything up close! The weather was so funny up there. . . it was hot and sunny for the majority of our time at Machu Picchu, but then without warning it started raining towards the end. I took a nice hand-held travel fan from Brookstone with me on the trip, and I actually pulled it out and walked around most of Machu Picchu holding the fan in front of my face, giving myself the extra air that I so desperately needed in the heat. I felt kind of funny (that crazy American tourist with the fan blowing right in her face!), but it was such a great thing to have with me! We had such an amazing time on our Machu Picchu tour, and of course it was completely unforgettable!

Now I'll let the photos speak for themselves. . .

What an incredible day! Machu Picchu is truly something everyone should experience once in their lifetime. It's spectacular!

And. . . can you believe it?. . . I'm DONE posting South America pictures!!! My whole trip is now complete, on the blog, forever! Now I can actually get caught up on blogging about other stuff. :) I hope all my readers have enjoyed my long travel posts and all my photos, because we sure did enjoy our trip!