Life is beautiful in Machu Picchu!

Yesterday we finally reached the Machu Picchu! This Inca site was never known to the Spanish during their conquest and therefore remained intact during centuries...

We were very excited about getting here, as this is one of the major highlights of our trip and we have not been disappointed... This place is truly magic and unique - you can really feel that you are in a very special place, full of harmony with nature on one side, but also full of mysteries which will remain unknown.

We were actually quite sad to find out that UNESCO is considering of putting Machu Picchu on its List of World Heritage Sites in Danger  - this means that we don't know if our kids will be able to walk through the site as we did...

But the stars remain definitely aligned for us: we were able to hike up the Huayna Picchu although we arrived late - the number of daily visitors is restricted to 400 and we were number 368 and 369! The way up to the summit is a very steep and harassing hike (especially since we haven't been working out much these days), but we were quite proud of ourselves when we reached the top and admired the view on the Machu Picchu site - (The Huayna Picchu is the mountain in the back of the picture where you see Claire with the guide.)

Today we enjoyed the Inkaterra hotel (our prefered hotel until now) which has hot jacuzzi outside, amazing food, and special guided tours through tea and coffee plantations as well as an orchid garden... Yes it was a very relaxing Sunday and we're looking forward to the dinner tonight... aaah honeymoon life is beautiful!

Thanks to you!

 The Huayna Picchu is the mountain in the back of the picture...we hiked all the way up!!!

...and this is the view from up there...amazing!!!