Despite exhaustion after yesterday's hike, today I started another excursion, this time to the famous Machu Picchu - the completely preserved/reconstructed town of the Incas, abandoned in mysterious circumstances... As this is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Latin America, visited by 1,500 tourists daily, there is a whole circus around it, a big tourist industry, not completely civilized yet... Sensing what's coming, I even thought to skip it to avoid all this. After all, I know this place well from many photos! All the people encountered, however, both locals and tourists, confirmed that this tourist attraction is the one really worth visiting! When I was coming here I understood why it was discovered so late. It's surrounded by several steep mountain ranges covered by tropical forest! Before they constructed the road and the railway, nobody was leaving here, or very few isolated from the civilization! Even now with the road, it takes six hours to come here from Cusco even if it's not more than 100 km in straight line! By the way, these are another truly impressive mountains! I walked the last 10 km in the sacred valley, along the river Urubamba (photo taken the following day from the altitude). I spent the night in Agua Calientes and will climb to Machu Picchu tomorrow very early in the morning :)
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