Day six began with a more leisurely wake up of 4:30 am, with a 5:30 am meet at the bus line. I think the goal of this was to see the sun rise over Machu Picchu but that didn’t really work out for us, low lying clouds and mist occluded our views. We embarked on our 2-3 hour guided tour of the massive complex with Lucio giving us all the info! It was really hard to wrap my head around what this place would have looked like when occupied by the Incan people.

One of the most fascinating things to me was the way the Incan people moved water through their city. There were numerous water fountains and channels connecting them to direct the water down, still flowing today from the rain we had received! Lucio made a point of explaining when the Spanish “found” Machu Picchu they noted in their journals how remarkably clean the city was.

After our tour, we went back down to Aguas Calientes for lunch with the group. We’d hoped to have some time to walk around but as with most of the tours, it was relax, relax, relax, then GO GO GO! I did manage to buy a watercolor painting from a street vendor as I was running by!

Back on the train, we passed the time playing Heart of 7’s where I went from winning to losing in 5 quick hands. We did catch a cool double rainbow on the ride home!

Our lodging for the next three nights was Abittare Hotels, a cute place but some issues with the hot water. We eventually figured it out (most likely a pressure issue combined with on demand heaters) so the first night was luke warm showers.