Here are the rest of the photos of my visit to Machu Picchu park with mi amiga Marcela. We finished our visit at 10am and after a quick bathroom break, began our guided tour with Johan, a young, but informative guide.
At that point it was much warmer than it had been when we first entered the park, but we were so thrilled about being in such an amazing place that the heat hardly bothered us. The sun’s rays certainly were strong up there and the afternoon gave a very different light for these pictures as compared to those of Huayna Picchu.



(Short-tailed chinchillas are all around the ruins, if you look hard enough)
(The Incans knew how to construct according to the presence of light;
here, light enters straight into each ‘window’ according to solstice or equinox, etc.)

Incomplete construction led to a partial collapse of this wall. Machu Picchu was abandoned in about 1572 by the Inca just over 100 years after they began constructing it (1450) due to the arrival of the Spanish. Fortunately the Spanish never discovered Machu Picchu, although it is known they passed on horseback along the rivers below.
Although there existence was known about by some local farmers, the ruins were ‘discovered’ by American Hiram Bingham in 1911, who took many original artifacts back to Yale University to be studied. After much dispute and outcry that Yale was exploiting the artifacts to attract visitors to its Peabody Museum, the university returned a final group of artifacts to Peru in November 2012.
This peak is actually Machu Picchu (Ancient Mountain), which overlooks the entire park, including Huayna Picchu.
Similar to Chichén Itzá, built by the Mayan people in the Yucatán Peninsula (southern México),
this area may have been used for sports. The echo here is incredible.

The view you have been waiting for (although funny enough, this view does not catch Machu Picchu itself, but rather Huayna Picchu. Machu Picchu is in the opposite direction, behind the camera).
The other side of the mountain: looking at some experimental crop-growing areas.