jwg

We climbed up to the SunGate which is the entrance to Machu Picchu from the Inca Trail and was the place where Hiram Bingham first encountered it. It is at 8,924 feet and gives a good view of the site since it is about 1,000 feet above it. The zig zag line in one of the pictures is the road that the busses use to get from Aguas Calientes to the site. The mountain on the other side is Huayna Picchu and is a bit higher. One of our group climbed it but most of us opted for the SunGate which was an easier hike. (8-9,000 feet feels a lot lower than the 11-12,000+ feet of Cusco and its surroundings).

There were a number of llamas roaming around - mostly with some identification on their ears. There were a few flowers scattered in chunks in the rocks - we saw several lizards basking in the sun and there was a rodent as well. Most of the fauna were humans. Late morning there were about 1,000 wandering about but late in the afternoon or earlier in the morning it was sparsely populated and I was able to take quite a few pictures with no people visible.

Click here for a Flickr set ->