Day 8 Peru Saturday

We headed out by bus to Machu Picchu at 5:30am. It was about 2 hours to Ollantaytambo where we caught the train. We saw some ruins from afar and then headed to a village. We were allowed to tour through some houses. They had a bunch of Guinea Pigs running around. I thought they were pets at first but was later told they eat them.

We then took a 1 and 1/2 hour train ride. It was beautiful to see the mountains and fog roll by. I could tell right away that we were going to experience something really amazing. We then took a 30 minute bus ride to the actual ruins area. We started at a watch tower area where we could see the entire site. It was breath-taking and no words could describe it. We really were up in the clouds.

There are places of worship, housing, burial sites and industrial areas in the ruins. There are areas of better craftmanship. You can tell by the smoothness of the rocks. The smoother rocks meant someone of importance lived in that area. We went at a pretty quick pace, but we had to in order to see everything. The they built was amazing. They often times used pre-exisiting rock and built underneath it. There was no mortar used. The rocks fit together perfectly. There were often so tighly fit that you couldn't fit a knife in between them. We saw a large rock with 30+ angles.

We saw this burial site. (pictured to the left) It was so well crafted and smooth that it was said that there were some important people buried back in there. We couldn't go inside because it was roped off. The Incans took the best ideas from other cultures that they conquered and learned from them. They had a calendar system that they used. It was two pools of water that reflected the stars at night. This is how they could tell the time of year. (pictured below)

We ate at the train station and then headed back. We had a great dinner back in Cuzco. We had a little meeting afterwards. We all got a chance to share our thoughts and thanks to Miguel and Pastor Arturo. Anne translated for us. I said this journey is similar to Abraham's like Arturo had said. I also shared that it will be awhile before this all soaks in. I shared Luke 2:19. It was nice to tell them how I felt.