“Bucket List” is a selfish term, but Machu Picchu seems to be in everyone’s definition of it. The long story of Machu Picchu is so much more than mine. But I am pleased we made it. The Place, Pachacuti, the no-Spaniards, and then Hiram Bingham. (While I am posting this after the fact due to computer issues, etc., please note that we were there on Friday, June 28th 2019.)

This first batch of pix is the approach: from the train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, around town, at the visitor’s center, etc.

So satisfying that the very first encounter is the iconic perspective. It had been raining hard at the hotel in the early morning before we drove up in the bus. But there was no rain, only mist rising up and floating across the citadel…

Before we began our tour of Machu Picchu, we did the little hike to the “Inca Bridge,” a very precarious path along a sheer cliff.

The stonework of the Inca is perhaps the crowning achievement of a people with no written language who did not use the wheel. Holgar, our guide for the trek & Machu Picchu, explained much about different buildings, rooms, and features of the citadel.

OK, it’s a lot of pix, but far from all of them, and hey, there we were…

(Please take the time to click on one, then scroll through.)

Genius it was to take the restrooms out of the citadel. That way people pass through and when they exit to go potty they cannot re-enter. Fortunately, Giscard & Holgar warned us so there was no panic, just completion, sort of… (This batch includes some maps that were posted at the train station, etc.)

OK Scholars, here’s your assignment. First, peruse the links above, then choose one…

1. A five paragraph essay on the history of Machu Picchu and the story of Pachacuti.
2. A five paragraph story on what it would have been like to be Hiram Bingham in 1911.