title: Matplotlib: Import Error no module named _path
body: <p>I've been struggling for hours on a problem that is making me insane. I installed Python 2.7 with Cygwin and added Scipy, Numpy, Matplotlib (1.4.3) and Ipython. When I decided to run <code>ipython --pylab</code> I get the following error:</p>
  
  <pre><code>/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/transforms.py in &lt;module&gt;()
   37 import numpy as np
   38 from numpy import ma
   ----&gt; 39 from matplotlib._path import (affine_transform, count_bboxes_overlapping_bbox,
   40     update_path_extents)
   41 from numpy.linalg import inv
  
   ImportError: No module named _path
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I spent hours on the internet, looking for a solution but nothing worked. I did notice that I am missing _path.so files in the matplotlib directory that everybody seems to have. Instead, I have two files: path.py and path.pyc. But I installed matplotlib directly from the official website using <code>pip install</code> and reinstalling it didn't make any difference. Does anyone have a little clue on what is going wrong? I would be incredibly grateful !!!</p>