Machu Picchu!

Today I travelled to Machu Picchu. It was unbelievable. A truly amazing experience.
I took the fancy train (about a 4 hour journey, each way) from Cusco to Machu Picchu. It was on the Orient Express and the train ride was an experience all on its own. Luxury to the extreme. Beautiful ride through through the much quieter and deserted parts of Peru, which was great to see.

Live music and dancers greeted us all at the train station and continued on the train rides with us providing Peruivan music and of course can;t forget to add in some Queen cover songs...cause well, must entertain the foreigners. :)

Met some really nice people on the train and ended up making a new friend that i talked to the entire 4 hours trip back to Cusco. She is Peruvian but lived in the states for a several years when she was a kid because of the genocide happening in Peru many years ago. She was very sweet and so fun to talk to. I learned a lot about Peru from her and was just nice to have a buddy for a bit on my solo trip.

Machu Picchu was amazing. After the 4 hour trip to the town where Machu Picchu is located, we all got onto a bus that drove us about 2,000 feet up to Machu Picchu site. Cusco is 11,000 above sea level and Machu Picchu is actually only 8,000 feet.
I experienced a little altitude sickness while in Cusco on my first day so I had to take it easy, but all was good. I was in a small tour of 4 other people besides myself with a great tour guide, Carlos, that told us all about the history of the site. Its remarkable...really a great experience that I'm so happy I was able to have.

We spent about 3 hours just slowing walking through every part of the site and listening to Carlos tell us everything he knew about it. When we first arrived, it was pouring down rain and the fog rolled in so thick that i could barely see a foot in front of me for about q0 minutes. We had to stop walking and just stand there, barely able to see one another standing next to us because the fog was so thick...it wasn't safe to continue walking. Crazy, but really pretty cool too.

Right around the beginning on the tour, my camera died because me being me and unable to contain my excitement, took so many photos of just the train ride there that I used up my battery too much. haha However, it did help me to appreciate being there more and not so focused on making sure I take the perfect picture.

more photos of my Peru Trip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/90572684@N08/sets/