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2003-01-17 - 11:31 a.m. Machu Picchu, Day Four, Part Two After sunrise at Intipunku, we weren't in a hurry - we had hours til the hordes of tourist arriving by train from Cusco showed up. We hiked down for about twenty minutes to a hill overlooking the ruins. Predictably, there were llamas.  Because llamas love Inca ruins!  Then we spent a couple of hours wandering around the ruins, led by our tour guide. I was pretty tired by that point - four days of walking had taken their toll. Here's what I remember: old rocks, Incans, more old rocks, Quechua, the Spanish are bad, coca leaves are good. Our tour guide talked a lot about coca leaves. By 10:30 am, we were done, which was good, as that's when all the tourists started to arrive. Machu Picchu began to slowly resemble Disney Land. Melchior decided to climb Huayna Picchu, a mountain overlooking the site.  I opted out, figuring I had made it this far without hurting myself. I didn't want to tempt fate. Also, it looked scary. Instead, I took more pictures of llamas.  And tourists.  And more tourists.  And gloated in the fact that they had all taken a train to get to Machu Picchu, while I had WALKED FOUR DAYS TO GET THERE. By 1 pm, we were ready to leave - we took a bus to Aguas Calientes, the nearby town, climbed up yet another steep hill, and relaxed in the hot baths there. For the first time in four days, I was almost clean.
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