As we entered the site, the mist clung to the mountains and obscured most of the city, revealing only small patches at a time, we climbed to the guard’s house, and sat on the grass, catching what glimpses we could as the clouds rolled over the site.MACHU PICCHU
From Puno, we rode to Ollyantambo, an ancient Inca town in the heart of the sacred valley, from where we would take our trip up to Machu Picchu. Needless to say, the ride was glorious again; we stopped en route in another Inca town in the sacred valley, before heading on to Ollyantanbo, where we would take a train, then a bus up to Machu Picchu.

The whole trip was going to cost us a fortune, even doing it the cheaper way by taking our train from here instead of from Cusco, but everyone had raved about the site, and we felt we couldn’t miss it.
We left Olly, as we had began calling it, at 5 in the morning, and after a short and rather beautiful train ride, we arrived in Aguas Calientes, from where we took the bus up the mountain to the entrance of Machu Picchu.

As we entered the site, the mist clung to the mountains and obscured most of the city, revealing only small patches at a time, we climbed to the guard’s house, and sat on the grass, catching what glimpses we could as the clouds rolled over the site.
The location of the 600-year-old city was amazing. Perched atop of a huge mountain, surrounded by peaks, looking down at valleys, and it surely was a feat that the Incas could build such a city in this remote mountaintop.
We wondered around, in and out of the roofless structures, up and down the steps used for agriculture, and checked out the temples. As awesome as it was, we both agreed that we had been more impressed with the sites we had seen in Mexico; Palenque, Tonin and Chitchen Itza, and Tikal in Guatemala.

We spent the best part of the day walking around the site, listening to snippets of other people’s guides, and gathering tidbits of information, before returning to the train station and back to Olly.