Day four in Peru, Machu Picchu Style!

Hello everyone, today is Jake and Devon's turn to write the blog. We began our journey to Machu Picchu with an early morning Vistadome train ride through the arid and tropical mountains to the city of Macchu Picchu. As soon as we reached the city we were rushed to a bus that would take us up the mountains on dangerous switchback roads to the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu.There we were met by our guide who led us through the ruins for 2 hours. He talked about the 3 levels of life that the Incans believed in, as well as the importance of duality in their lives.The first level is represented by the serpent, it is the spiritual level and is where we go when we die. The second is represented by the puma and is the life we live now on earth, and the third, the condor is the solar system. The Incans had different temples at Machu Picchu to these three animals that we visited. Throughout the ruins there also were many instances where duality was shown, between elder mountain (Machu Picchu) and the young mountain as well as an image of a man and a woman. After the guide left us we took a short lunch break and then went back up to the ruins to "journal", take pictures, and to check out some things the guide didn't have time to show us. This took a few hours and then we decided to leave and head down the mountain. Thanks to an Irish couple we had met the night before who had visited the ruins that day we decided to take a walking trail down the mountain instead of a boring old bus ride down. This trail, though very physically demanding, had a spectacular view of the mountainous landscape surrounding Machu Picchu. After completing the hour and a half journey down the trail we finally made it to Hatuchay Tower, our hotel. Here we had a gourmet dinner and then had the rest of the night too relax and play catchphrase and other games.