Machu Picchu, Peru

Machu Picchu, the Mecca of South American tourism, rises out of a fog.When we arrived early on our first day, it was very misty, and the mountains that towered above us appeared and disappeared in the clouds.We decided to stop waiting for the mist to lift with the other photographers, and we went for a walk, leaving all the other tourists behind. Orchids were everywhere in the lovely cloud forest.We walked through the jungle along an Incan path until it descended to this bridge, far below us, built on a shear cliff. Back in Inca times, the wooden plank in the middle could be removed to stop attackers.When we returned to the main site, the mist had cleared for a travel-magazine-quality shot.The setting was fantastic.We walked along the cascading fountains that once supplied the city with drinking water.The water channels were carved into the rock in ingenious ways.Since it was close to the winter solstice, strange things kept lining up, like this sunbeam on a carved stone:An Inca doorway. The small double holes on either side were for the wooden hinges.Some of the stonework built around existing boulders was amazing.In the afternoon, we decided to climb the famous mountain behind Naomi in this picture:The path up to the peak was carved into the stone by the Incas to make stairways. At the top were more ruins, hanging on the side of the pinnacle top.Here is Naomi on some of the ruins with the main city far below.This stone staircase was built on a cliff dropping over one thousand feet straight down to the river.Here is Naomi on what looks like a fortification built into the cliff.And here is the view straight down to the rushing Urubamba, literally 1600 feet below.We then dropped most of the tourists behind in order to go for a pleasant hike off the mountain's back side. The delightful trail was miles long but composed mostly of staircases carved into the rock by Inca craftsmen.It was steep, and there were some ladders, too.The path took us down almost to the river, where there was a small ruined temple in a cave. There weren't many people around. From above, we spied one of the park rangers valiantly guarding the site:The cave temple was built under a giant boulder.We visited the site for two days. On the second morning, we saw the sun rise through the departing mist, and there were insect-eating birds darting in the air over our heads.A spider's web in a window with a view.This cute creature is a chinchilla that we saw among the ruins.A view across the Urubamba to the next peak. I met a tourist who had climbed that hill the day before on a trail made entirely of ladders. You can see the train track in the valley.We were very surprised that we could walk anywhere we wanted on the ruins, and it was very easy to find secluded spots where most people never went. At the end of our second day at Machu Picchu, we explored a very steep area of farming terraces on the west side of the main city. At the bottom of the terraces, they dropped off all the way to the valley floor. You can see the river below me in this picture.Here is a narrow staircase that I loved that curved up through the elegant geometric shapes of the terraces.-Ryan