Entering the Ruins - The Guardhouse

Continuing the narrative from Day Four: We arrived on the plateau overlooking Machu Picchu somewhere around 7:00 and spent maybe 30 minutes enjoying the view, taking pictures and getting our introduction to the site from Mauro.  From this viewpoint you get a good idea of the site's layout and design with agricultural terraces, urban sectors, plazas and Huayna Picchu towering over them all. This position also gives you a dramatic overview of the natural setting with mountain peaks all around and the Urubamba river valley surrounding the location on three sides.

The restored Guardhouse is now occupied primarily by llamas. Here they are singing a welcome as a trio! There were a number of llamas (or alpacas - I don't remember the difference even though it was explained several times) wandering the site and also a dog or two. The large brown llama wandering around the hut we learned is named Panchito. (Funny what you record in your journal!)

The Guardhouse is built in an open style - three walls and open on one of the long sides. The stonework is of a good quality and the open side faces the Ceremonial Rock (below) so it is doubtful that this is just a shack for a watchman. 

The alternative suggestion (held by Hiram Bingham, the original excavator of the site) was, because multiple tombs were found nearby, that this stone was a place where the dead were laid out to be embalmed. Thus the alternative name for this altar: the Funerary Stone.

The weather had held out for us up until now but as we were leaving the area the clouds began to roll in and we headed down to the entrance to the park proper and the Eastern Sector...

After entering the park proper, the entry pathway...