Cusco and Machu Picchu

May 10
We arrived in Cusco at 6am, got a cab to an ATM where the machine stole 200 soles from William, so we got dropped off at the Church to wait for the banks to open. As we listened to the 6:30 am mother´s day mass, I thought of you mom! And then we came to the realization that it being Sunday, the banks were not going to open. I´ll just preface this story by saying that we chose to take the road less traveled (and it made all the difference). So we got into a van heading towards Ollyantamba, and while we are waiting, the van fills up with Peruvians, and women keep coming by the van to sell them everything from big pieces of bread to a plastic baggie filled with corn and a piece of cheese- peruvian version of a drive-through window. The journey began, and during the 5 hours the climate changed from cold, foggy, and mountainous to definitely hot tropical jungle. The scenery was beautiful. Then we got dropped off in Santa Maria where we were supposed to make our connection to the hot springs, and we tell the guy where we want to be dropped off, and he says ´well, the problem is, that town doesnt exist anymore. It got washed away in the floods in January´. So, there we are, in the middle of nowhere trying to get to a town that doesn´t exist. So we get a car to Santa Theresa, and in the car we fit 9 people into a 5 person car. Another 2 hours and we are in Santa Theresa. Since we got there around 2pm, we figured we could make it to Aguas Calientes that day (instead of the following morning as planned). So, we get into yet another car and get dropped of at Oroya where a guy in the car with us tells us that he will accompany us because it is very dangerous. I didn´t know what he was refering to, but when we walked down the hill and saw the way we were supposed to cross the river, I understood. Best way to cross a raging river in Peru? In a basket attatched to a wire... the three of us adults, our packs, fit into a 2x3 platformed basket and our local friend pulled us accross the river- oh my it was so freaky! And when we got to the other side he told us that two people had already died there this year- cool.
So, then began our walk to A.C.
I was drenched in sweat within 30 seconds, so the guy offered to carry one of my bags for me and I tried to say oh no I got it! but realized that I would love the hand. We walked, talked with our friend, and about 1.5 hours later reached the hidroelectric plant, stopped to rest, and kept on going towards the town. We walked along the train tracks, getting bit by a million mosquitos, for about 2 or 3 hours, and finally made it to the campsite. Dropped off our stuff, and walked into town. Aguas Calientes is such a tourist town, it was very unappealing to us both. But on the bright side we found Mexican food.

My alarm went off at 12;45 am and we were ready to go. The campsite is right by the bridge to get into Machu, so we crossed by the empty guards hut, found the trail, and began the ascent. The climb up was just hellacious, seemed like the stairs would never end. After about an hour, we saw a light up above, and creeped up, to see in front of us Machu Picchu Hotel (how gross is that??) And then some structure to the right, so we walked to the right, opened a gate tied with string, and climbed up behind the house thing, stepped by a sleeping guard, and walked through the mist with no idea where we were going. We had a map of the city, but that didn´t help to orient us, so we were just kind of wandering around, when we saw a sign pointing up. I didn´t read the sign, but we started walking up. After about 20 minutes without seeing anything, I wanted to turn around but felt that would be a waste of the progress we had made already, so we kept climbing. About 2 hours and a billion steep stairs later, we realized we probably were not going the right way. Frustration. So, 3 am, we decided to head back to where we started. We walked more to the right and saw a hut, climbed the stairs, and as the light shined into the mist I got so afraid- there was a white figure with long legs and glowing eyes! A huge llama! Actually there were like 5 llamas there, and they weren´t running away from us which made me think they were evil. After I calmed myself down, we walked over there and tried to explor more, but the mist was so thick it was impossible to tell what was what. So then we slept in the woods until about 6:30 when we heard the first voices. Emerging from the forest, we saw that we were in front of the city the whole time!! If only we had kept going right!!! Oh well though. The first sight of the ruins gave me the goosebumps, its such an impressive site, spread out over the mountain below.
Spent the morning exploring all the little rooms, climbing up and down, pondering the mysteries and the immense work that it took to build the city. It was so so cool!! I was amazed though at the amount of tourists up there- every minute a new group of white people wearing broad hats and fanny packs would wander off the bus and into the park- we were judging them for their lack of creativity and effort to reach the town.
So, we successfully snuck into machu picchu, were the first ones there, and probably had the most interesting time arriving than anyone else. I was absolutely exhausted afterwards and slept until night time, when we had mexican food again.

Next day, we took the train-bus combo and got back to Cusco around 3. Cusco is a really pretty town, the plaza is super old and cobble stones, with the buildings and their beautiful balconies facing inside, not to mention the two beautiful churches there. After lunch we went to the market and I drooled over everything alpaca.. Then dinner was an indian buffet with cheap beers, and a night out on the town (for free basically because we kept getting free drinks in exchange for picking one bar over another)

May 12
Found the best breakfast in South America at Jack´s cafe!! Went to the market one last time, and William and I parted ways with me boarding the bus to Lima. As soon as I got on the bus, a Peruvian comes up to me to ask if he can take my picture (no), they played the worst movies that I watched anyway, and in bingo I won a free bus ticket lima-cusco. 22 hours was not too bad of a bus ride, and I made it to the Lima airport on the 13th with plenty of my time.

On the plane I got stuck sitting next to a super creepy and wierd evangelical preacher.. gave him a fake name and email.. and 30plus hours later I was in bed at my hostel in Bogota! It seemed as if everyone from the preacher to the customs officer disaproved of the fact that Im coming here on my own, which was kind of unsettling, but I made it to the hostel with no problem. This morning I woke up early and went to the Museo de Oro, Botero collection, gabriel garcia marquez library, vegetarian lunch, now it´s raining, and I think I´m doing a bike tour of Bogota tomorrow! Hope everyone has fun at sports weekend this weekend, I am so sad to miss it!!