When we finally made it to the ruins, we felt we were walking around in a time of ancient history. Wondering what each place was made from and what the people did while there. What were their celebrations like? What did they do for worship? What were their meals like and sleeping quarters? How did the children interact and play…how did they learn? Papi answered a lot of our questions on the tour but some were still nice to ponder. Chris and I walked around for some time looking for his “Stairs of Death” and we thought we found them. An area was marked off with lethal warnings of falling to one’s death so we thought that area was where the stairs were. Nope. While writing about them in my blog last week I discovered they are in Wayna Picchu.
My friend from Taiwan has been reading these blogs and she kindly shared her photographs from her hike. This is the amazing friend who fell, hurt her leg, got stitches, rode up to Machu Picchu, and then when Papi left…hiked Wayna Picchu because she is tough! Her stitches held up and she said the pain killers were working so good that she did not want to miss out. I get that. Traveling around the world to see something you may never have the chance to go back and see. She put a smile on her face and went up to the top. They saw dancers up there and the “Stairs of Death.” Here are a few pictures she took and shared with me for this blog post. I hope you enjoy them. As I mentioned, Chris and I will have to go back if he ever wants to do the stair hike. For now…let’s head back to Machu Picchu.
We found a lovely spot to take pictures and the avocado guy was nice enough to take our picture staring at the mountain. He set us up and told us where to stand, look, etc. it was nice to have the help and the pictures turned out awesome. After this I found a spot to sit and paint. Chris wandered around and found a trail for us to hike together later, then came and sat with me while I painted. The most amazing thing happened to me at that moment. He sat and a llama came over to smell my paint set. It thought it was good I guess, and then the llama sniffed my face. I kept painting and he looked at my painting, then at Machu Picchu, then at my painting, then at me. This carried on for a minute and then the llama went to Chris for food…which he did not give the llama of course. We sat for a while and just enjoyed ourselves. More to come on Friday!
Have a Wondrous Wednesday and thank you for reading!
-Karen Hilliard
Here is a taste of the blog coming out Friday…What do you think it will be about?