I am writing you to tell you a little bit about a place called Machu Picchu in Peru. Machu Picchu is located on the top of a big mountain. But the area is part mountain and part jungle so there are lots of trees, parrots, and jungle flowers around. I went there about ten days ago with my girlfriend, Anne. Unfortunately, we didn't see any parrots but we did see beautiful butterflies and amazing flowers like this one.
Machu Picchu was built by a tribe of South American Indians known as the Incans. In school you have probably learned about North American Native Americans and know that there are many different tribes like the Navajo, Sioux, Apache, and Cherokee. Well, the Incans were one of the most powerful tribes in all of South America.
Let me show you some pictures of what they built on top of a mountain:
The Incans built Machu Picchu almost 600 years ago! We got to explore and walk around the ruins for as long as we wanted. We walked for hours and hours and didn't even come close to seeing everything!
Not many animals live at Machu Picchu, but one very special kind of animal does. It is a kind of animal called a llama. Here is one of the llamas that lives at Machu Picchu.
This llama isn't very big, but they can grow pretty tall. If you disturb them, llamas spit at you. The people in Peru use the llama for its very warm wool and also for its milk. There is a smaller animal called an Alpaca that has even softer wool, the softest wool in the world. And, there is an even smaller relative called a Vicuna, but vicunas are pretty rare now and I didn't get to see any of them.
Feel free to ask me any questions about Machu Picchu!
