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Inca Ruins
The third day involves some ascent but most of the time you are losing height as you begin to drop down to Machu Picchu. The end of this day's walking is the hostel at Huinay Huayna, about an hour's walk from Machu Picchu itself. The notable thing about the third day is all the Inca ruins you pass. The ruins served different purposes. Some were way stations, some temples, some storehouse and in some cases its not clear what role the buildings had. Of course to understand them you need a guide.
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Augusto was our tour guide for the trail. He had pretty good English and kept us educated with information on the trail, its history, stories about the Inca, the ruins we passed and the flora and fauna we passed. One of the things Augusto pointed out was these small cairns left on the trail, usually at passes. These were left by the Indian porters as offerings to the mountain gods, the Apu.
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He also showed us these orchids just off the path.
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These were some of the first ruins we came across before the Runquracay pass. This used to be a waystation and a grain store.
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Further along the trial you come to Sayacmarca. These ruins are built on a promontory that overlooks the trail. This may have been a fortress to control access to the trail.
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Running into Sayacmarca is a stone aqueduct. And with a little work 500 years later it can still bring water to the site. One feature of this site and many of the Inca ruins are baths like these. All with running water.
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Over the next pass was Phuyupatamarca. It was never finished. Presumably the fall of the Inca empire with the arrival of the Spanish left it uncompleted. The slab at the top was rock that had been leveled by hand. And at the bottom you can see the chain of baths with water flowing from the upper ones (apparently for the nobles) to the bottom ones intended for those of lower birth.
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At the end of the day we made it to Huinay Huayna. This is the last stop before Machu Picchu itself. There is a hostel at this point (with much needed showers). We were camped on terraces outside the hostel that dropped down to the jungle below. An amazing location for camping. Around the corner from the hostel was the Huinay Huayna ruins. These are almost as spectacular, and certainly as well constructed, as Machu Picchu.
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And being close to the hostel we were able to do our tour of the ruins with beer in hand as the sun set. A very civilized way to end a day :-)
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