9 de Marzo - MACHU PICCHU

I am not what you call a morning person. Normally, I am not a "happy camper" when i have to wake up before the sun comes up (*note, it is completely acceptable to stay up UNTIL sunrise if participating in extracurricular activities). However, there are a few times in my life where I'll break tradition and drag myself out of my warm bed. One such day, March 9th. I jumped out of bed at 3:45 am after very little sleep. By 4:30 we were on our way to the steps up to Machu Picchu. So, in the dark we climbed and climbed for about an hour and a half to the top of the Machu Picchu ruins. Hard work, but so worth it. We entered the gate and headed to the opposite end to obtain tickets for Waynupichu, which only 400 people are allowed to climb per day. Hopefully I'll get my pictures up soon so you can see them as you read this but I'm sure you've seen the classic Machu Picchu pictures with a big mountain in the background? Yeah, Waynupichu. Big mountain, many more stairs. We got our ticket, sweet. So then commenced the tour of the Incan ruins. I can't explain what if feels like to be up there. I wish I would take video because it is the most magical place on earth. To try and imagine what it was like in the 15th century with people living and working is difficult, but I have to believe it was a pretty amazing place. And to think that Hiram Bingham only paid a local boy one sole to show him the location of these lost ruins! I want to find a something that nobody has discovered yet!

I feel bad for the poor guy that I marry because in order to make me any happier than I was at the moment will be quite a feat. The Peruvians believe the mountain has some kind of effect on the spirit and/or soul and I believe they might be right. I felt right as rain up there and every stair I killed myself climbing was worth the pain. I would do a thousand more just to see that place again.

Since we're obviously into that S&M stuff, Holly and I climbed Waynupicchu to get a 360 view of the entire area. This climb was not easy but again, so worth it. To give you a feel for this type of climb, there were thick wire ropes on the side of most of the steps (or umm...rocks) so you didn't fall off the side of the mountain as you climbed the slippery slate. So fun. Atop the mountain was even more ruins and we could see Aguas Calientes and all the surrounding mountains below. We could also see the town of Hydro Electrica and a bridge many miles away that we had crossed the day before. To think we had come this far. And to think we had done all this before 11 am.

So we walked back down and chilled out by the ruins for a while and watched the llamas eat at the mountainside. Who needs a lawnmower when you have "llamamowers." Haha, get it? Oh...wow. Anyway. It turns out someone brought 4 llamas originally for a commercial and left them here. As it was, one of those llamas was a male. Now, they have a family of about 20 llamas just living in Machu Picchu. Lucky animals.

Thinking we could go to the bathroom before descending the stairs to Aguas Calienties, we found the local WC. Now, I really wanted to go before hopping down over 1000 stairs back to town but you had to pay 1 sole for the bathroom. Nope, not going to happen. So we waited and went down -- what I had counted -- the 1600 stairs back to town. Shower after all this? Nope, we didn't have a room at the hostel anymore so we sat around drinking beer until our 6 o'clock train. I can't decide if I should wash my clothes or just burn them all.

The following day Holly, Reto, and I had breakfast before we all parted out separate ways. I love being a backpacker and I love meeting others because you all meet for a short period of time and scatter throughout the country on your own adventures afterwards. It's a very rewarding experience and I love hearing the stories each of them have after months of traveling. If you get a chance to travel alone, do it. There is something about not knowing what the next day will bring that just makes you feel alive.

But alas, the end was here. I was shocked back to my reality as I flew to Lima to meet my host family and get ready for the next day's orientation. So far my host family and my roommates are amazing. Still, Lima has a lot to live up to.