Caroline's Machu Picchu Pictures

Sam already posted the story about our trip to Machu Picchu, so this will mostly just be my pictures.  I feel like such a traveler when I take pictures like this, which is probably why I take them:

A view of Cusco, Peru (elevation 3,400 m), from the plane:

The train we took leaving from Ollantaytambo to go to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu (it's still dark because this was about 5am):

A wonderful picture!  This might be the best one we have, and it really captures the magical feeling of being up there in the cloud forest.  That hat is the one I won at the Neuroscience Fair:

Once the sun had come out:

A cool flower, which I always like to take a picture of:

Alpacas contributing to the lawn maintenance:

We were really high up in the mountains when we were at the ruins:

Check out that stonework!  There is no mortar or anything, they just cut the rocks like that:

A cool little nook.  Note all the jackets that we decided we didn't want to wear after we started the hike (too late not to bring them with us) strapped to the back of the backpack:

This one is the opposite of the one Sam posted.  Can you see Sam 3 rooms away?  (P.S. Mine turned out better, I think.)

Another cool view.  Check out the clouds above:

You can see the Sun Gate here, which we think is where you come in from the Inca Trail, which we didn't do.  It's at the crook of the elbow made by where the two mountains meet. 

Here Sam is sitting in a window:

These were the coolest of the zillions of steps we had to take to get up to (and then down from) Machu Picchu:

At the entrance at the bottom, after quite a long day:

The bridge across the river back to Aguas Calientes:

The river was really cool:

This picture kind of blows my mind.  That's the moon up in the middle of the sky:

A view of Aguas Calientes as we hiked back in:

A cool flower:

Another cool flower:

These rocks in the river look like they are made of clay that someone pushed their thumb into a bunch of times.  Not the one in the foreground in this picture, but the ones behind:

Last one.  Look at that weird ball in the top of this tree: