Yes the moment finally arrived and we made it to Machu Picchu! Getting there was a lot more difficult than I thought because once we had made our way to the nearest village, we had to wake up at 4am to trek 2 hours uphill (seriously uphill it was awful in the heat and humidity) but once we arrived it was all worth it. Machu Picchu is absolutely spectacular. I’m sure the photos cannot portray this but it is hands down one of the most amazing things Ive ever seen and should be visited by all!! Our trip was made even better by our Argentinian biker friends we made while on our way to the ruins who hung out with us and made sure we made it up the mountain alive 🙂

Machu in Quechua means old and Picchu is mountain and the name Machu Pichu is not the original name for the ruins. The original name is unknown and when Hiram Bingham (american explorer who made the ruins famous throughout the world) found the area he was originally looking for the Incan city of gold. The locals told him its behind that old mountain, hence the name Machu Picchu was born.

MP was thought to have been built by millions of people, however only the chosen few were allowed to live in the site. It is thought that only around 1000 specifically picked intellectuals resided there and hence why it has such a well developed archaeological, astronomical and hydrological culture. The Incas used the different terraces to cultivate different types of crops (as each terrace is at a different altitude and thus had a different microclimate) and they produced over 2000 types of potatoes (yes that is three zeros) and over 500 types of maize. They also grew Kiwicha which is super rich in protein and is apparently nowadays exported and used by NASA on space missions due to the large energy content (despite this they still were 1.4m tall on average). Finally the terraces were also used as a way to retain water as with the massive amount of rainfall you get in that area it would have been washed away straight away if it hadn’t been built properly!

The awful walk up

The Incas also designed their own water purification methods by angling the rocks differently to trap the grit from the river water

All the walls in the whole of MP are at an angle to protect from earthquakes. While the nearby city of Cusco was destroyed twice by major earthquakes in the area, Machu Picchu still stands!

Our biker friends from Mendoza