machhhhhu!!! picchuuuuuuu!

Ok So, Machu Picchu – simply aMAzing!!
So cool! I was worried that I wouldn’t think it was as breathtaking as everyone said it would be… but it was – it so was! We left for Cusco on Thursday morning at 6am and caught a plane… where everyone was wearing masks for the swine flew! Super scary! Then we took a bus to Pisak to see some ruins there, which were pretty impressive, but nothing compared to Cusco, then we took a bus to Ollantaytambo and slept there for the night and got up at 4am to get up early to catch the train to go to Aguas Calientes and then on to Machu Picchu. We went super early because we wanted to be there in time to get in line for this mountain that has the best view of Machu Picchu, Wayna Picchu Mountain (the biiig mountain in the background of all the Machu Picchu pics - should look it up, I was on that!!) and only the first 200 people get to go on the trail, and we made it! And so we started the hike up this huge, steep mountain at 8am. I thought I was going to die. It was soooooooo hard! It was so sooo so so steep and added with the altitude and getting higher and higher, it was extremely intense, and I suppose a little dangerous, they told us that someone hadn’t died in almost a year now, so that was comforting! Lol. It was really really steep tho and some of the stairs were like half of a length of a foot and if you stepped in the wrong place you could definitely just fall off the cliff. They had arrows in this extremely odd places like at the ends of cliffs? Like really, I’m not supposed to jump off the cliff? We were thinking those were the areas where people fell off and so the arrows were there for “liability”. Liability what? Really no such thing in Perú I wouldn’t think. Anyway, we made it to the top, and it was amazing. It was cloudly all morning but just started to clear up when we got up there so we could see the amazing view of Machu Picchu, which we hadn’t discovered yet, only the distanced view. We stayed up on WaynaPicchu for about an hour, snacked, took pics, then started on our trek down… which we decided was how people died – going down not up. Going up was intense, but going down was downright scary!! If you leaned a little to far one way youd fall on your face all the way to the bottom.. and the half foot stairs.. harder to go down then up! But we made it down and cheered on all the people attempting to go up behind us, telling them they were almost there and that they wouldn’t die, because it definitely seems possible! There were people from every different country. We heard sooo soo so many languages there – it was sooo neat. People from all the continents, I wouldn’t doubt. We had just received an email from Luther telling us not to travel if at all possible because of the Swine flu, and if we do travel, to stay away from large, touristy groups. Really – Machu Picchu is like the capital of the tourist world so.. yeah.. swine flu here we come! Anyway, we made it down and signed in our names – you have to sign in when you leave and the time, and when you get down and the time because at 3 everyone has to be off the trail so they can look for missing people or see if anyone hasn’t made it back or… didn’t make it at all. But we made it! Lol, then Bethany and I made the trek to the bathroom after that… all the way outside of the park! We didn’t realize it was so far away! So we rewarded ourselves with ice cream for 8 soles (a little on the expensive side, you can get Bembo’s ice cream for 2 soles (like their version of McDonalds) and ice cream from Gelatería for 6 soles, but of course this was the tourist capital of the world, but we decided we deserved it, 8 soles = about $2.40 – funny we comment how 8 soles is expensive, but it is for here! I don’t think I’ll make it when I get back to the states and the prices there.. for real!) Anyway then we all went on a tour of Machu Picchu and.. it’s incredible. I’m not really a ruins-type I’d say but, you can’t help but be awed and amazed at this stuff. It seems impossible, and how they did it is just… out of this world - which is probably why there’s that big hoax of, ‘Aliens Built Machu Picchu.’ Then we climbed to the top of the Machu Picchu ruins (everything seemed sooo hard after our WaynaPicchu hike.. my legs were like jello after that – so hard! But worth it) and we hung out just laying around, napping, snacking, chilling out on Machu Picchu – was the coolest thing ever. Just hanging out at Machu Picchu. I just chilled at Machu Picchu. Probably one of the coolest things I’ve done. Then after a while we caught a bus back to Aguas Calientes, showered, got some coffee, then ate – this delicious pizza with dulce de leche, peaches, cherries, and cheese – sounds awful, but was soooo good! Then we went out for drinks after that – man I will miss that. I can go out for drinks.. and buy them.. and drink them.. all in the same place at the same time. They’d see us and be like ‘deal deal – 4 for one’ and we’d be like ‘well theres 5 of us’ and then they’d say ‘ok 5 for one’, so it was 5 drinks for 20 soles, and sometimes 15, which is about $6 – 5 drinks for $6 – unreal! Pisco sour, chicanos, cuba libre, and some of them were so strong we couldn’t drink them. The idea was probably to set us down for one deal and then we’d stay.. but we’d bar hop and find our next deal. And it takes about 2 drinks to feel it hit ya in that sort of altitude. Then we got up, took a bus, saw some ruins (nothing compares to Machu Picchu), went to a huge market, then got back to Cusco and hung out there for the night. Cusco is soo cool – we all wished we had more time there. It’s very Spanish, of course from the conquistadors, but more so than other cities in Peru, and all the streets are made of stone and they have the Incan wall there which is like the stone at Machu Picchu – which is just amazing, and then the Spanish copy cat right next to it trying to duplicate it, but it doesn’t even come close. Cusco is very very touristy of course too, about half the town is tourists they said, but a very beautiful town with very beautiful churches, architectures, everything. Then we went out – got some crazy food we hadn’t tried, chupe de camerones, alpaca meat, wine, then went back out and got a drink in this up scale bar in Cusco and hung out in bean bags and played games for a while, then got home and of course… no excursion and trip can ever fail… I got sick that night and was like death Sunday for the travel back home. Was very painful, thinking from the food, the hits of altitude so fast switching up and down so much, bus rides, the works, but now I’m perfectly fine and no clinic or IV in me this week! :)
This week holds a lot of work… a lot of going out – we only have 18 days left! So crazy! Hope everyone is doing good! And I hope I talk to you super soon! Love and miss you all! You have love from Lima!!
- Un beso