Day 6 -- Macchu Piccu

Dera friends and family,
The bus ride to catch the train to Macchu Piccu was a beautiful thing to behold with the Andes stretching out in front of us with white snow capped mountains. We arrived in the town (that had about 20 letters in its name and i can't pronounce it), where we caught the train, and visited in a family home. The people in the house are still living as did the Incas of the 12th century in a small mud brick abode with dirt floor and an earthen cooking area in the corner that stands about one foot high with a small fire inside for cooking. The house had a hand plow standing in one corner and a cot in the other and about 30 guinea pigs running on the dirt floor of this one room place. Yes, people love their diet of guinea pigs. The house had the familiar alcoves that all Inca homes of the past had. One of the alcoves in this house had two human skulls on display. Then we got on the train and rode down the Ururamba gorge following the river to the town of Aguas Caliente (which is now also known as Macchu Piccu). Pulling into this town on our train with the train track down the middle of the main street i felt like i was back in the 1800' s and the wild west. We then got on a bus to ride up to Macchu Piccu mountain. The dirt road had many hairpin turns and was mostly one lane where you could look straight down the side of the bus to the Ururamba River way below. Needless to say we were all a bit nervous. Well, Macch Piccu is as stunning as the postcards show it to be. It is hard to believe the Inca Indians could have build such a widespread and many massive structures on the top of a mountain. Ding, ding, ding -- there goes the train by my front door as i write this. Tomorrow i will get up and 5 and catch a bus back up the mountain to hike to the Sun Gate at six for the sunrise. The Sun Gate is good for me as i will have the sun behind my back for picture taking of Macchu Piccu early in the morning. This town reminds me too of maybe what a town in Nepal might look like as it is nestled at the base of so many high, high mountains. Okay, bye for now. It seems like i have been here for a month and it's only been six days.