Machu Picchu Day 2

Thursday May 19

It was another early morning get up from our hotel room in Aguas Calientes as we needed to be out the door to catch the 30 minute bus to the top of Machu Picchu. Our guide, Juan Carlos, told us to get in line at precisely 5:25 and he would round us up. In keeping with my painfully punctual nature we arrived in line about 5:15, and what a line it was.

Juan Carlos said that the week before the line was a few hundred people less than at the point we had stepped in and now there was a hundred behind us and growing. But, there is a bus for everyone and we did still make it up in plenty of time to see the sun hit the site.

Here we are, a lot less sweaty and tired then the day before.

The views from the surrounding valley were as impressive as they were during our Inka Trail hike.

The clouds and the lighting was constantly changing making for a new photo op every few minutes.

No as cute as the kids, but still worth a kiss.

I read a book years ago that was offering an explanation for the high technology that we find in many disparate and geographically distributed ancient civilizations. It started with the abilities man had develop as documented in the account of the Tower of Babel -

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11 (ESV)

The people in the plain of Shinar, like those who rebuilt Steve Austin, had the technology and used it. They were using their technology in their rebellion against God for which he confused their tongues and distributed them throughout the earth. The Inka had the remnants of this technology from their ancestors who arrived several millennia before. I would be interested to read that book after having seen what amazing engineers these people were.

Riley has become a sleep opportunist like her mom, anytime anywhere. She totally passed out on this switchback filled bump-fest. So I got a selfie with her too. One wonders if fixing the road once would be cheaper than the constant bus repairs.  Oh, I forgot to mention that I forgot Riley on the bus as I jumped off at the stop ;-(

Machu Picchu Day 1 Images now out there. Day 2 coming soon courtesy of Starbucks.

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