More of Machi Pichu

Machi Pichu fulfilled all my boyhood dreams of adventure and exploration, as a boy my father told me tales of living in Patagonia, and he encouraged me to read as I got older books by : Rider Haggard's "King Solomon's Mines" and the Australian, Peter Pinney's - "Dust On My Shoes."

These tales told to me, and stories read by me, influenced me to leave home at an early age after completing school, to experience the other worlds out there. Now having worked in different countries, and travelled extensively for the past four years, I was ready to get off the beaten trail. Machi Piichu satiated this desire for a different experience, away from the maddening crowd, living in these ruins  and exploring around where few had been, was, a dream come true for a young Australian travelling the world.

Further  images of the "Lost City of the Incas" known as Machu Pichi

This was one of the perimeter buildings, on the other side was a sheer vertical drop to the river thousands of feet below. The lay out is re mindful of fortifications as all the planning has been designed to face inwards. The exterior is fortress like with walls being interfaced with vertical cliff face making it impossible to detect or able to scale.

Most of the ruins had been excavated  and rebuilt by locals and supervised by archaeologists, which provided an indication of the lay out of the temples and houses for the village, the interlinking pathways and staircases were all made from stone which had been cut and measured for size. All the walls were- 'dry stone walls' with no mortar, only weight and precision cutting and exactitude kept them from eroding which is staggering considering the rainfalls storms and winds this part of the Andes would experience.

There were small herds of Llamas wandering around the ruins, not sure whether they were wild or domesticated.

This is the English couple we stayed with in this hut  for four days while exploring and climbing the surrounding peaks and mountains.This would be impossible to do in today times, because as a tourist attraction Machi Pichu rates as one of the biggest tourist attractions in South America. All people movement around the ruins would now be strictly monitored by guided tours and limitations on where people can and canot go. Going off and exploring and climbing would be severely limited if not impossible to do on your own.

The stonework in this place is monumental.