Machu Picchu - Day 3

The third day of the trek was a full day of hiking filled with lots of amazing sights.

We began our day hiking up another steep pass:

We enjoyed views of incredibly steep mountains:

Came across a number of different ruins:

Explored close up:

Hanging out in the clouds:

I loved these stairs to get from one terrace to another:

Pretty much all of our meals included soup as a first course. This was a particularly good quinoa and veggie soup from lunch that day:

Back to hiking:

The trail went through this little crevice:

We had breathtaking views from the third pass where some other groups had camped. We spent some time enjoying the view while waiting for our group to reassemble midday with our guide. After instructions from our guide we took off in search of some amazing ruins on a bit longer path with a quick pace so that we'd be able to reach our camp before sunset.

The first ruins you can see below are called phuyapatamarca: 

Following the 3rd pass, we began our descent and hiked down so many stairs (I read somewhere that it's around 1,000 stairs.)

I was glad some friends had convinced us of the benefits of walking poles at this point, that provided a bit of relief for knees:

The dream team made it to Intipata where we got to see some workers clearing plants off the terraces with machetes. I snapped some pictures of these llamas overlooking the Urubamba river. They were peaceful at first:

Then I guess they were a little miffed at all the photos: 

Suddenly they charged towards me. I got one last shot before I jumped back against the terrace and they ran on by me: 

These steps between terraces were the coolest:

It was incredible to come upon this place. One minute we were in a the thickest jungle on such a steep mountain and then all of the sudden there was this. You'd never imagine you could build these terraces and structures by looking at the surrounding terrain. It was truly awe inspiring.

One last picture with our friends before we headed toward camp. We were so happy:

The dream team was the first to make it to camp and the porters all cheered for us, it was so incredibly nice of them. We took off our packs and headed a short ways past camp to catch a glimpse of Wiñay Wayna before sunset. It was the most magnificent ruin we had seen yet and it was so fulfilling to have made it there. It was our only chance to see it since we would be departing for Machu Picchu in the morning before light.

The best hiking buddies!

So beautiful: