Amazing Peru - Fabled Machu Picchu - One of the 7 wonders of the world

Niether pictures nor words give justice to fabled Machu Picchu. The magnitude of the setting, hundreds of feet above a winding jungle river gorge, sheer rock cliffs trimmed in foilage and a landscape of ancient ruins so finely constructed, the whole scene seems a work of virtual fiction...The site is still shrouded in mystery even after its discovery in 1911 after evading detection by the occupying Spaniards and most native Peruvians alike for over 400 years! (And that estimate is conservative. The site may have been created hundreds or even thousands of years earlier and reoccupied by the Inca later) You must see the clouds hovering over the green peaks, the finely-fitted grey, Inca stone walls, the verdent green terraces that served as mountain fields for ancient inhabitants, to believe the site truely is real. Our concern with travelers we lead here is that the build-up and anticipation become so great that the experience is anti-climatic. But that has never been a problem. In the case of Machu Picchu, the real thing always evokes trademark Adventure Walkers "awe and wonder" of the highest order even without all the far-fetched, mystic connotations sometimes attributed to the site.

All mysticism aside, Machu Picchu is awe-inspiring as it stands, evoking wonder from everyone who steps foot there. And there are many. Reservations were so hard to get on the train going to the foot of the site that we were compelled to send half our group halfway by bus. Guides spoke of the possibility of the ruin itself being closed to on-site walk-throughs in the near future due to the pressure of tourism. Though May is not considered high tourist season, the venue was packed and the bus to the mountain-top filled with a polyglot bunch speaking English, German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Polish and other languages we didn't recognize.