{"id":402,"date":"2011-03-09T07:10:58","date_gmt":"2011-03-09T17:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/2011\/03\/machu-freakin-picchu"},"modified":"2011-03-09T07:10:58","modified_gmt":"2011-03-09T17:10:58","slug":"machu-freakin-picchu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/2011\/03\/machu-freakin-picchu","title":{"rendered":"Machu Freakin&#8217; Picchu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday March 9th<\/p>\n<p>Guess what we did today? Yup. Visit Machu Picchu. <\/p>\n<p>It all started at 4am, when we woke up and joined the line of people waiting for the first buses to Machu Picchu. We did this so that we could be some of the first people in the NEXT line, outside of Machu Picchu&#8217;s entrance gates, to get an authorization stamp to climb Huayna Picchu (only 400 people get to climb it each day, and it&#8217;s first-come, first-served). <\/p>\n<p>Ahh, 4:30. What a magical hour.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5530049674\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5180\/5530049674_cb5ce59d6c_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>After entering the park, our first stop was the &#8220;guardhouse&#8221; where we awaited our guide. Hey look, it&#8217;s Machu Picchu!<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5530049892\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5292\/5530049892_b4d20d4695_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529461839\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5294\/5529461839_e511929df3_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>The last time I was in Peru (2007), my friend Patrick and I skipped Cusco and MP because they&#8217;re so touristy. Well, they are touristy\u2014that&#8217;s a fact. But I really enjoyed finally getting to see the ancient Incan kingdom.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529462209\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5216\/5529462209_bae65c9314_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>Requisite butt shot.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529462511\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5216\/5529462511_02c9991fd5_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>Trip leader shot.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529462749\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5097\/5529462749_e284bcdbb9_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>Myspace shot.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529462929\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5215\/5529462929_ff5c7fd820_b.jpg' border='0' width='640' height='480' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>&#8230;and a few more group shots.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5530051542\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5171\/5530051542_09263fdebf_b.jpg' border='0' width='640' height='480' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5530051830\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5292\/5530051830_be9354dc67_b.jpg' border='0' width='640' height='480' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>Our tour guide loved talking about the triangles that are everywhere and how they relate to the glaciers and asked if we were &#8220;CLEAR TO THE IDEA?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529464009\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5092\/5529464009_0f2b05be01_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>Vicious wild llamas wandered the ruins.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529464231\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5140\/5529464231_e50951f7dd_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>Wild &#8220;chinchillas&#8221; too.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529464441\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5218\/5529464441_275d284988_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>And &#8220;Andean eagles&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5530052936\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5097\/5530052936_2eacb04770_b.jpg' border='0' width='480' height='640' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>We climbed up Huayna Picchu, the big mountain that you typically see photographed next to Machu Picchu.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5530053194\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5255\/5530053194_ef2ede2de4_b.jpg' border='0' width='640' height='480' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5529465255\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5012\/5529465255_50f2559800_b.jpg' border='0' width='640' height='480' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5530053642\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5173\/5530053642_e9da1945f1_b.jpg' border='0' width='640' height='480' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><br \/>Goodbye Machu Picchu.<\/p>\n<p><center><a href='http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/58489710@N07\/5530054096\/'><img src='http:\/\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5219\/5530054096_bc24695381_b.jpg' border='0' width='640' height='480' style='margin:5px'><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wednesday March 9th Guess what we did today? Yup. Visit Machu Picchu. It all started at 4am, when we woke up and joined the line of people waiting for the first buses to Machu Picchu. We did this so that we could be some of the first people in the NEXT line, outside of Machu [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blakeboles.com\/travels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}