The organization around getting people in buses, up the hill, and into Machu Picchu in an orderly way is very impressive. Our guide (included in ticket price) was at our hotel at 7:20 to walk us to the line for arrival at MP at 9. As we waited, people came by to check our tickets and scan our bus tickets. 

After about an hour in line, we boarded the buses and took the ~25 minute ride up the mountain with dozens of switchbacks. The views of the Andes only improving as we rose, glimpses of the city itself teased us at several turns. 

After arriving, and waiting for the 9 o'clock hour to strike so we could enter, our tour of Machu Picchu began. 

Yersenio first took us to the overlook with the "classic Machu Picchu picture." I'm not ashamed to admit that we took dozens, if not hundreds of photos on the ascent and at the apex of the agricultural area overlooking the city. As we went, Jersenio was dropping small facts leading up to a longer talk (with flip book pictures) about the construction, history, and "rediscovery" (the locals of Aguas Calientes always knew the ruins were there, but it was shared with the rest of the world in 1911 when Hiram Bingham was looking for El Dorado and asked locals if they knew about a hidden Inca city). 

The tour was singular, and the experience unique, and exhausting. We crashed hard after a lunch of peanut butter and nutella sandwiches, rallying only in the evening to wander the artisan market and to play cards over dinner. 

Incoming list of facts, mostly about Machu Picchu, some about the Inca in general, all courtesy of Yersenio: 

• Cuzco (or Cosco, which means center or navel) was the capital of the Inca empire, so was very ornate. this led to the misconception by the Spanish that all Inca cities were as lavishly decorated with gold, and spawned the legend of the Lost Inca City (El Dorado) 

• Machu Picchu was actually not a very important Inca settlement at the time of the Inca, it is now the most important because it is the only one that the Spanish did not find and destroy in the name of Jesus Christ (That is commonly known about, maybe there are others out there in the jungle!)

• the beautiful stonework of buildings and walls with stones perfectly shaped, needing no mortar to seal them, were for temples and nobility, most of the stonework (while very impressive) is more practical, and less labor intensive

• Inca civilization supported transit throughout the empire by having settlements within 20km of each other or so with an established barter system and entry fee for pilgrims to enter cities and settlements to get access to food, water, and shelter

• after the first war with the Spanish in Cosco, the nobility left and asked all the Inca people to reorganize in the deep jungle, where they survived for another generation despite the Spaniards best efforts

• an agrarian society with a 2 season year (wet/dry, sowing/harvesting), the Summer and Winter solstices carried significant weight in the Inca culture. temples and monuments are often built so that sun striking the on the Winter solstice (June 21 in the southern hemisphere) casts a specific shadow or illuminates symmetrically through windows. Additionally, 80% of the building in Machu Picchu were built facing the sunrise of the Winter solstice

• three S's of Incan architecture: symmetry - Incan builders used arthrometry and prioritized symmetry in their building, simplicity - minimal (if any) decorative stone work, the beauty is in the perfection, solidity - with earthquakes being a common enough, walls are built slanting in, doorways and windows are trapezoidal, and larger, load bearing walls have smaller stones on the bottom to better survive passing seismic waves

• Machu Picchu is actually the name of the mountain behind the settlement, the name of the settlement is lost to time. Machu means old, and Picchu means peak

• the famous Inca terraces are held up by retaining walls built to reduce erosion. This erosion reduction isn't just from the walls: layers of dirt/sand/small rock/larger rock built up on each terrace reduce erosion as well

• the word "salary" comes from Roman soldiers using their pay to buy salt, jerky comes from the Quechua word "charqi"

Our guide, Yersino, had a lot of ideas for fun photos we could take, here is an example of one he took using the panorama setting.

View from the line for the bus up to Machu Picchu

Now, please enjoy several photos of us at Machu Picchu!

Spotted: a wild chinchilla enjoying the Incan craftsmanship