Day 7: Machu Picchu day aka the day of so many steps

The Today we rose early to have a quick breakfast at the hotel before we met our guide at the line for the buses to Machu Picchu at 515. We rode the bus for about 20 minutes before arriving at the site. Craziness to get in as the place was just opening. Then our guide rushes us past almost everyone and books it up these stairs. I'm struggling to keep up, but I figure he has a plan. His plan was two-fold: get to the top before all the tourists to get pics of Machu w/o people and get pics before the clouds rolled in. He timed it beautifully and I'm so happy he ran us up those stairs, but seriously...I wanted to strangle him on the way up!! 

After a few pictures overlooking the site, we went and sat down for a bit as he gave us s history lesson. I tried to focus, but really I was just staring at this amazing place. And was fascinated by the way the clouds would move in and out. 

After our history lesson, it was off to your the grounds a bit. He took us to the temple of the sun, the room of three windows, and this cool place where the Incan had placed a rock with four corners directly facing the four directions of the compass. These people were brilliant! 

At around 740, he dropped us off at the entrance to Waynupichu mountain which only 400 people a day get to climb. You'll see it as the big mountain in the background in this pic: 

Holy fright was this a climb! On the way down I counted approximately 1274 steps (+/- 10 steps). And these were steep stairs! One hour or so up and about the same down, but the views were incredible. Totally worth it, but certainly exhausting. My legs were shaking by the time we were done. I'm

Not sure my legs have ever been that tired! Even post marathon!!!

We also did these poses to match the guy from the map you saw in a previous post: 

We finished the mountain around 10am and started to head out of the park for a bathroom break/snack break as there are no bathrooms inside the park. As we walked through the maze that is Machu Picchu, we ran into my SU buddies and Michael's work buddies. Crazy small world again. That place is huge and to find each other that easily is crazy to me. 

After break time, we went back into the park to explore a few more things on our own, but there are a lot of stairs there and our legs were killing us. Plus, it was so full of tourists at this point, we no longer found it enjoyable. So, we decided to head out around 1215 or so. 

We had decided earlier in the day to walk back to Aguas Calirntes to save ourselves the $12 each bus fare. So we began what was a terrible walk filled with tons more steps. Granted it was all down hill, but these steps are steep and my knees/feet were so tired of the jarring motion by the time we made it to the bottom I wanted to call it quits. But, we powered through and found a restaurant (The Treehouse) to have some food/beverage as a late lunch. Unfortunately it was up more stairs. I think it took me a minute stair to get up there, but it was a nice place and less touristy than all the restaurants down on the main street, so worth it. 

After that we got me some tea because I was chilly, stayed in the square a bit, toured the handicraft market, had a drink/snack/restroom break at a bit so good restaurant with 5* bathrooms and then had dinner at an Italian place that was okay. We had planned on going back to the charming place (India Feliz) from the night before, but they were closed for the day. :( 

Then, we boarded our 2 hour train that took us close to Cusco, but not close enough. After that it was a 1.5 hour car ride. We arrived at the hotel around 10pm and were being picked up at 4am for our flight back to Lima. Exhausting, but amazing day!! 

More pics will come when I upload my camera pics.