Yay! I'm a llama again! (Finally, some pictures)

Peru is beautiful. So is Cuzco. Sixty to 70% of the city's local industry is related to tourism, so they keep the city really clean. We stayed with a missionary couple there that run a guest house. The bed had a heated mattress cover! What?!?! It was great :)

Saturday morning we started our drive to Ollantaytambo, the location of the train station. The whole thing is a *bit* misleading. If you get a train ticket from Cuzco to Machu Picchu, it's actually from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. It's an hour and a half drive from Cuzco to O-town by bus, but the Strongs (the missionaries) needed to go up that way anyway, and really, it was amazing.

First we stopped off at a wildlife refuge. Not a wide variety of animals,  but check out this bad boy.

The Andean Condor with an 10ft wing span

About a minute down the road, we stopped to see llamas and alpacas! Rachel was giddy with excitement (I was pretty excited too, I just tend to be a tiny bit quieter about it)

I will call you Chewy, and you will be mine. You will be my Chewy.

We stopped in Pisac for some shopping and food. Cute town. Then there was a stop at was at a pottery factory. It was very difficult to decide what to buy, because seriously, everything was just so fun. And decently priced.

And then on to the train station. We got out, used the bathroom, and then Rachel realized that she left her camera in the Strongs' van. There was a bit of a panic moment or two,  until we tracked down a phone and called them. They were super gracious and turned around to bring it back to us.

The train to Aguas Calientes was fun, mostly because we were super impressed by the raging river of death next to us. It's the rainy season here, so it was really high. And scary.

Not the best pic, but it shows the river going over the bridge. 

We got up at 5am on Sunday (please take a moment to appreciate that fact) in order to be on the bus to Machu Picchu by 6. We managed 6:15, because we had to buy tickets and wait in a tiny line.

If any of you reading this ever get the chance to go to Machu Picchu (MP for now on), go early. The low clouds make for some magical looking pictures, but it's also a lot quieter at early in the morning. We did not follow the arrows, but wandered wherever we wanted to go, so for the first hour at least there was hardly any one around. But enough of that, here's some pictures!

"RACHEL!!!"

The view of MP from Intipuntu along the Royal Incan Trail

After reaching Intipuntu, this is how I felt

We had no idea how long it would take us to see all that we could see, but we were done around noon. After that we wandered Aguas Calientes, and came across this gem of a statue. This, I think, is one of my most favorite pictures of Rachel.