Machu Picchu!!!!!!

Aahhhhhh! I am nervous about this post because nothing I write or post pictures of will do it justice. This was an absolutely incredible experience and so breathtaking.

We planned to be on one of the first buses up to the entrance, so our hotel recommended that we be there one hour before the bus actually left the station, or 4:30 am. We arrived at about 4:40 and there were already about 200 people in line ahead of us.


Clearly we all had the same plan. Good thing the bus company has done this before. There were about 15 buses lined up ready to take us up.

The ride was pretty windy, but not near as bad as it looks from google earth.


(those switchbacks are the road!)

Once you get off the bus, everyone rushes to a booth to get their tickets stamped to climb HuayanaPicchu, which is the huge mountain at Machu Picchu.


Only 400 people are allowed up each day (200 at 7am and 200 at 10am) and we were some of the last ones to get a stamp.


Upon entering the ruins, we thought it was really cool,



but then we walked about 500 more feet in and BAM!


It opens up into the full site. It is so much larger than I had thought it would be,


and the walls/huts are much bigger than I had expected.


Every two minutes we were turning to each other and saying "how did they do this??". There were so many perfect right angles on the walls, windows, even an aqueduct system.





And THEN we saw the Alpacas!


They were just wandering through the ruins, eating grass and bugging tourists. I loved it!


Watching the sunrise was an experience in itself. I am soo glad we went in right when it opened!











We explored around,



took a zillion more pictures,





and walked out to see the Incan Bridge.


How in the world did they get that thing there?









We then stopped for a picnic. Not a bad place to rest, eh?


At 10, we began climbing



See that? That's the tip we climbed to!



It took us about an hour to get to the top; a climb full of crazy steep steps and inclines.


Thanks for the railing, Incans! One wrong step and you were dead meat.

Rumor on the path was that the record for ascent was about 15 minutes, by one of the Incan trail porters. I was so terrified of falling off the sides, I don't know how anyone could be so brave! My knees were so shaky, and I'm not even that afraid of heights! There were a few of those obnoxious, impatient climbers whom rush past you, but for the most part, everyone was super encouraging and friendly along the path.

Oh yeah, and there are two tiny caves you have to squeeze through.






At the top there are more ruins!


I thought the climb was impressive on it's own, but clearly people were doing this thousands of years ago with granite on their backs! I blame it on the office job. If I was an Incan, I TOTALLY could have done that ;)

Beautiful views of the entire valley.





Aww, cute!

I feel so lucky that we were able, and determined enough to climb to the top. Absolutely worth waking up so early and pushing ourselves to do it.


We left Mach Picchu around 1 and spent the rest of the afternoon catching our breath, eating a late lunch, and then it was back on the train and back to Cuzco!

When we got in, thoroughly exhausted from such a long day, we just wanted to grab something to eat and go to bed. . There are two fast food options in Cuzco, McDonalds and Bembo's, which is a Peruvian (South American?) chain. We decided to try Bembo's even though it looked kinda scary. When in Rome, right? We took one bite of the hamburger and...headed to McDonalds. So much for expanding our palates!

Our final night at the net house was hilarious. Let's just say someone finally understands my neuroticism about icky hotel beds and jumped out of bed screaming because he thought he felt a bug crawling on him. Luckily, he was wrong. Also, we downloaded a white noise app for the iPad which was GENIUS. No more barking dogs! I finally got a good night's sleep.

We are headed back to Lima today, and then we are off to the Amazon! Iquitos here we come!!! Not sure if there is Internet there (somehow I doubt it, but thanks to this awesome iPad app, I can keep writing posts and save them until we do have Internet!)

Aguas Calientes

Getting to Machu Picchu is not a simple process. First you fly to Cuzco, then you take a 4hr train ride to Aguas Calientes, the closest town to Machu Picchu. And then you take a bus up to the entrance. Also you have to buy tickets for each thing separately and at completely different locations. We bought our rail tickets online, our Machu Picchu entrance tickets in Cuzco and our bus tickets in Aguas Calientes.

We were on the cheapest train (there are three levels) and it was very nice. It is still not that cheap though, and we heard that peruvians can take the same train for about 5x less than they charge the tourists. Definitely a racket.


Waiting in the train station. Excited to get on our way!


I was, of course, the first person to ask the guards if I could sneak out to the trains for a picture, and I think they regretted allowing me because about 100 people followed suit.


The train ride is through gorgeous countryside, straight through small towns, and across rivers.








A group of people way tougher than us, hiking the Incan trail while we speed past in our lazyman's train.

Since our train left fairly early in the morning (7:45), we arrived in Aguas Calientes around 12:30. Some people do Machu Picchu as a day trip, which seems crazy fast to me; I am very glad that Patrick planned for us to stay overnight.


The town is super small, so we easily walked to our hostel and checked in. It was definitely a step up from the net house (or as Patrick has so sweetly dubbed it, the hell house), but still pretty icky. We are starting to see why backpackers smell so bad and look like they never shower; if we are "splurging" on $35 a night places and are still afraid of the bathroom and bed, I can't imagine what the $15 places are like. Good thing we are already in love because I'm pretty sure we look (and smell) like homeless people. Case in point: My accomplishment for today? Showering, washing my hair AND shaving my legs. Yeah, that's a big deal these days. Gross.

Anyways, after checking in to Pirwan, we explored the town. There are a zillion identical restaurants, all with a 15 sole lunch menu of soup, entree and drink.



I finally got to have lomo saltado, and I have to say, for $5 it was pretty dang good!


There were tons of street musicians wandering the streets. I love the music here, it really adds to the experience.


We finished exploring the town about an hour later. The Incan flag is very similar to a flag we are familiar with in the US, but the meaning is very different! Also, it is the law that in the month of June, every building must have the flag displayed somewhere. So we saw lots and lots of rainbows.




















It is definitely a poor city, but extremely clean and there are police all over the place. Tourism is clearly their sole source of income here, and they take it seriously.

We grabbed an early dinner at a really cute place called The Tree House Restaurant; it felt similar to places in San Francisco and the food was good too! We finally tried Alpaca - in the form of a pasta dish.


It was pretty good - the flavor was very similar to beef, but it was kind of dry and the texture was a little weird. I don't think I would be able to tell what it was if no one told me, it could easily pass for beef. I wouldn't seek it out, but am not opposed to eating it.

We attempted an early bedtime since we had to wake up the next morning at 3:15 am to catch the bus to Macu Picchu. Yikes!

I've got a bone to pick with South America

Dear Peru,

For the record, Coke Zero is NOT the same as Coca lite. Dying here. And I'm not even a DC addict.

Also, what is up with your cheese???

Not to mention, it would be great to know your flight has been delayed an hour and has moved gates a bit earlier than, say, 15 minutes AFTER your flight was supposed to leave.

We're taking this one day at a time. And are celebrating every time we get on the correct flight and show up in the right city. So far, so good.

Now, if only I could find me some Diet Coke...

Xoxo,
Sarah

Cuzco!

We left Lima bright and early Tuesday morning (read 6:30 am because we were paranoid about getting our flights sorted out). For some reason I was super nervous about waking up on time so I was continually waking up in a panic, only to check the alarm to see it had only been 45 minutes since the last time I'd checked. Anyways, needless to say we awoke on time, and got to the airport with plenty of time to deal with our plane tickets.

Patrick had purchased the tickets on starperu.com but we were only charged a portion of the fare for "safety purposes". We couldn't find proof of purchase anywhere online, and the only evidence we had that we had actually bought anything was the screenshot he miraculously thought to grab when the order processed. So yeah, we were a but skeptical. But, low and behold all went smoothly.



Happy smile of relief.

Upon arrival in Cuzco, we were instructed to drink some coca tea (not too bad!) and rest for an hour or two to stave off the altitude sickness. We had read a few horror stories online and were a bit nervous, but we were fine.





After seeing our bed, I was LOVING my sleep sack purchase. I may be prepared to rough it on this trip, but that doesn't mean my body has to touch any of it!!


Next stop, the Cuzco market! We had seen it on No Reservations and were super excited to check it out.

Piña y naranja juga. Delicious! I can't get over all the fresh juices they have in Peru. I am not usually a juice fan, (because I am a snob and think it just tastes like sugar and fake crap) but the juice here is incredible. We were careful to make sure that it was pure juice, with no water added so that we would be safe from bacteria, but then a little too late, we saw the juicer, strainer and glasses in the bucket of local water. Oops. It's over 24 hrs later and still no issues so I'm pretty sure the coast is clear.


Wandering around the market was a total trip. Honestly, this was unlike anything we had ever seen before. We have both seen some pretty crazy butcher shops, but Cuzco takes the cake for SURE.





















We got in trouble for taking pictures of people - in fact, I'm pretty sure someone cursed me but I gave her some soles so maybe it canceled itself out?

Cuzco is maybe the most interesting city I have ever seen. There is so much culture and they have preserved the foundation of the city extremely well.





They even make the fast food restaurants fit into the scenery - we didn't notice the McDonalds until we just about walked in accidentally!





Oh and another reason this town is endeared to me forever? Just look what we stumbled upon while wandering around!


How could I not love a city with cute little donut ladies!

We took a little tour around the town


which was really cool because we got to see a lot of the actual residences up in the hills.


The Andean people have crazy endurance, the hills are STEEP and they live pretty far from the center of town.


Walking to and from every day is not an easy task. Especially when they are carrying all their wares AND a baby(!) on their backs.

We stopped at the Cristo Blanco and snapped a few shots of the city at night.





We also did quite a but of shopping in cuzco which was a bit of a surprise because I rarely buy anything on vacations. Patrick didn't know what to do with me, he says he has never seen me like this before, haha. I was so drawn to their wares (and cute families), I even bought something for my someday baby! (couldn't resist).


For dinner we HAD to eat Cuy, better known as Guinea Pig to us. Patrick had tried to eat it while on his mission, but it's a little $$ for a missionary budget so we took advantage while we could.


Honestly, it tasted fine, but it definitely got my psychological creep-out going. I think it was the rubbery texture of the meat and skin, as well as the greyish undertones.


Not something I'd run out and eat every day. But I'm glad we got to try it!

A funny anecdote from the evening: as we were trying to find the restaurant, we were approached by some local "art students" who helped us figure out where we were going. They mentioned that they would come back to find us when the meal was over and see if we wanted to buy one of their paintings. So, after dinner, while listening to some typical Peruvian music, in comes the art student. Surprisingly, he doesn't seem to remember us, but whatevs, we'll look at his art, right? So Patrick ends up buying a painting from him, and we leave. As soon as we walk out of the restaurant, who are we approached by? The ACTUAL guy who had helped us find the restaurant. This is going to sound totally racist, but I swear it's true. Every 20-something Peruvian guy looks exactly the same. They all have the same haircut and are about the same height. Needless to say, he was pretty pissed off when we didn't buy something from him as well. Oops!

The night ended back at our somewhat scary "bed and breakfast" where we are 98% sure we were the only guests. After the worst nights sleep of our lives (paper thin walls and howling dogs makes for GREAT white noise), we awoke at 5 in order to make our train to Aguas Calientes. The staff never showed up for the "breakfast" portion or the check-out, so I am hoping we left the keys in the right place! Unfortunately, we are booked there again tomorrow night so I guess I will find out soon enough!

Ok enough with our day in Cuzco already! Next post, Aguas Calientes!