Machu Picchu and other sites

One of our fist stops was at a small textile shop where we learned about the kinds of plants used to make certain kinds of dyes for cloth. We got to feel the difference between llama and alpaca and see how it was washed and then spun into thread.Then we learned about chicha beer, which is made out of corn and is left to ferment for a few days, the longer the stronger. We visited the ruins of Ollantaytambu (sp?) and got some stair climbing practice before Machu Picchu. Then we took a train to Aguas Calientes and spent the night there. The big hike was for the next morning

Machu Picchu was amazing. Easy to see why it's visited so often and why it's a UNESCO World Heritage site. We arrived early in the morning to hike Huayna Picchu, which is the big mountain to the right in every picture of Machu Picchu ever. Whew, it was quite a climb but there was a beautiful aerial view of the terraces waiting for us at the end. Climbing um the mountain involved a seemingly never ending series of stairs and lots of water and catch your breath breaks. After descending the mountain and telling everyone on the way down that the view was a amazing, we took a tour of Machu Picchu. Our guide explained that the site was more of a retreat for the scholarly/wealthy Incas way back in the day. The fact that the site was built in the shape of the mountain and more or less flowed with the topography of the site helped in stay hidden from the Spanish, who had a penchant for destroying neat Incan things.
It was amazing to think about carrying heavy stones around to build walls when we were getting winded just climbing a few stairs. But somehow the Incan cut thousands of stones and built walls that are still standing today. We say a number of different kinds of dwellings on the mountain. There were store houses that had second story windows to allow ventilation as well as sites of worship such as this stone that is in the image of a condor.

There were a number of llama peacefully grazing on the terraces but this was only a teaser for the llama/alpaca/all types of dromedary relatives farm we were about to visit! I'm still not quite sure which animals were which but it was fun to feed them and see the variety of colors they came in.

The next day in Cusco we were free to explore and got to see the weekly Sunday parade complete with military processions and dances representing various regions.