The Clark Family's Amazing Adventures

Greetings to friends and family everywhere from me and my family in Peru!

Arriving in the clouds at dawn to Machu Picchu – New Year’s Eve 2012

I am posting this e-card to all of you (sorry its a bit late!)……….wishing you a belated Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year… to view it, please click on the following link:

Hallmark Australia  e-Card from Zoe

We spent yesterday – the last day of 2012  in Machu Picchu, an old Inca city hidden up in the clouds. The city was hidden for 500 years until it was discovered 101 years ago by an explorer who was looking for the lost city!

Hiram Bingham discovered Machu Picchu in 1911, we explored it 101 years later!

We had stayed in the town of Aguas Calientes the night before where we went in the hot springs and then to a great restaurant called Indio Feliz, the food was great and I got to do a picture that they put up on the wall.

Hot Springs and my picture at Indio Feliz in Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu village)

We had to get up at 04.30 so we could get up to Machu Picchu before all the crowds but there were still lots of people at the bus stop waiting for buses to start running at 05.30 – we got on the fourth bus about 05.45 and it took us up a zig zag road to Machu Picchu where we arrived at 06:00!

Flat Stanley and I have a rest at the top to admire the view!

We got a guide which I wasn’t very happy about because I wanted to go off on my own and explore like a traveller! He showed us around and we did find out a bit and then we got to explore on our own – it got so hot we had to keep sitting down and then we lost Ben when he went back to look for his coat and then he and Dad hiked to the Sun Gate and the Inca bridge while Lara, Mum, Flat Stanley and  I explored the mountain and looked at all the amazing views of Machu Picchu.

Exploring Machu Picchu

We got back to the town of Aguas Calientes in the afternoon and then got the train back Ollantaytambo – which is a small Inca town in the Sacred Valley where we are staying. For New Year, we went to a restaurant but Ben, Lara and I all fell asleep and went to bed before it was midnight!

Ben Lara and Me needed a rest after all those steps up Machu Picchu !

 

For two days before we left Ollantaytambo for Machu Picchu, me, Ben and Dad went hiking to explore  some Inca ruins around Ollantaytambo –  it was brilliant – we climbed really high up steep old Inca paths and over dangerous rocks – sometimes Mum, Lara and Oma could see us up the mountain when they looked in the zoom of the camera from the town plaza but mostly they couldn’t see us!

We had a brilliant time climbing up the steep paths to explore the Inca sites at Ollantaytambo – they built everything on really steep mountainsides!

Today is New Year’s Day 2013 – we spent the morning playing on the hotel balcony by the river and the afternoon in the town plaza watching the new year celebrations of all the Quechua people who come down from the tiny communities up in the mountains in their traditional clothing. My Mum even got invited to join in with the  traditional game where they roll wooden balls to knock down posts decorated with flowers!

Quechua New Year celebrations in Ollantaytambu.

Then Ben bought fireworks that the children just let off in the street, and sparklers and we used them in the plaza before we went for dinner!  We tried to share them with a Quechan child but he was too scared. The grown ups held them but they didn’t wave them around so I don’t think they had seen them before but afterwards we had a nice chat with them in Spanish.

Sparklers on New Years Day evening in Ollantaytambu Plaza de las Armas

Next we’re going back to Cusco and after that we will soon be heading to Lake Titicaca and Bolivia.

Happy New Year!