PERÙ: Machu Picchu

Once you get off the plane in Lima, you do not see any welcome to Peru sign. You see advertisement for Machu Picchu. You walk don the street, buses have Machu Picchu signs on them. You go to a market, carpets and walls decorations have Machu Picchu drawn and written on it.
Machu Picchu is being advertised by people who haven't even been there.
But for me Machu Picchu was not the ruins. I find looking at old rocks piled on top of each other boring.

What was the thing that made my visit worth the day, schlep and money was the
JUNGLE ( and a few other things.)

I have never been to the jungle before. As Israel is very dry, it is in fact quiet the opposite of a jungle. And the forests in Germany are no comparison.

The gushing sound of the water, the heavy, warm air, all the voices from the weirdest trees and bushes, smells. From time to time a house would pop out of the trees. I even came across a loaded avocado tree. It was STUFFED with fresh and
ready fruit.

Crossing the Sacred Valley there is the Urubamba river, stretching over many kilometers south, in the direction of Bolivia. This river, however, as I found out during the ride, is one tiny finger of the great Amazon river, located mainly in the northern part of Peru.

Here called Machu Picchu pueblo- village- a small is village is located at the feet of many mountains, one of which is Machu Picchu. Its 'real' name is

Aguas Calientes, agua- water; caliente- hot.

Many people like to go to Machu Picchu for two days, stay the night in
Aguas Calientes. For them Machu Picchu is magical. I couldn't really understand why...

The very beginning of Aguas Calientes.

After taking a 30-min bus drive and starting to walk up the mountain, the fist view we has was this

Machu Picchu

Something became extremely clear to me after both Pisac and Machu Picchu. The Incans were unbelievable in building ths most unbelievable things. Here you can see a water canal going underneath and through a wall.

The mountains surrounding Machu Picchu.

The ruins of MAchu Picchu are not just what is often seen on photos and advertisement. The Incas managed to build terraces and stairs going ALL the way down the mountain. This is a little hard to see but right in the middle of the picture, underneath the big block of stone in the middle, there are stairs, half covered by trees and bushes.

All kinds of weird and colourful vegetation.

From the main picture of Machu Picchu there are two pathways meant for walking- one going to the left and to the Inca Bridge and one going to the right; a walk a lot longer and harder, which at the end connects the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu.
We did not know anything bout Machu Picchu when we got there. We did not want any guide, and I was not really interested in reading heaps of information; this made me know very little about Machu Picchu.
Only once I got back to Willka T'ika did I find out about these two walking paths, and how popular they are.
While we were there, my dad and I just turned into an unknown path, leading us to the Inca Gate. The Incas carved through the edge of the mountain and built a long, narrow, curvy pathway. Here you can see a little part of the pathway. On the left is solid rock. Going a little too far to the right and you fall down down down in the Amazon, FAR bellow.