Waynapicchu! && Goodbye to Peru :(

Saturday morning we got up around 6 am to head back to Machu Picchu and climb Waynapicchu. Waynapicchu is a mountain that overlooks the city of Machu Picchu, and standing tall at 2,693 meters, it marks the north end of the site. 

Matt, the giant, squeezing through the cave.

The hike up the mountain wasn't too bad-since we went so early, the weather was still cool which was nice since it kept us from over-heating. There was, however, one part of the hike  that was a little harder to get around, and by around I mean through- we crawled through a cave in the middle of the mountain! It made me wonder why the Inca had built such a path, without any answers coming to mind, I asked Keri if she knew of any theories. The first, she said, could have been for pilgrimage reasons. The other reason would have been just because they could; as I mentioned in my last post, mainly everything the Inca did was backed by nature and their philosophy, thus it doesn't seem too far fetched that they built on the mountain in order to display their power and human vs. nature beliefs. I also thought of a sight Dr. Brown absolutely wanted us to see- the doorway entrance to the urban sector of Machu Picchu. As the picture below shows, Waynapicchu is centered in the middle of  the entrance way and its enormity is displayed, surely by no accident on the Inca part. This graphic display of power is very persistent throughout Inca architecture. 

Entrance to Machu Picchu opens up to Waynapicchu Mtn. 

On the way down from the top of Waynapicchu, we spotted Dr.Brown and had one of our daily lesson plans. He had us take a close look at the shape of Machu Picchu- in the shape way Cusco is in the shape of a puma, we were able to see how Machu Picchu was shaped like a condor. Also of interest is the watchhouse at the top of the agricultural section; it overlooks the city and it is positioned so that it looks over both entrances to the city. However, we were able to come up with another hypothesis for the use of the watch-house. As I mentioned on my last blog, the Inca had stones that were tilted for the draining of blood; one of these stones is placed right behind the watch-house, we can thus infer that maybe there was another use for this house, perhaps a ceremonial one.

Our time at Aguas Calientes slowly came to an end as we enjoyed our last coffee and pastries at a local coffee shop in order to get the wifi needed to post our last few blogs! 

I am saddened that this trip is about to come to an end- I can honestly say I would do it again in a heart beat, and probably to Dr. Browns' surprise, I wouldn't change a thing about it (And no, I'm not forgetting our 2 hour hike to Aguas Calientes). I feel incredibly blessed to have been given the opportunity to come on this trip, I am also thankful for everyone who made this trip one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

Julie