I finally made it!

Machu Picchu really is all it’s cracked up to be. Unfortunately I was too tired to totally enjoy it.

A 4am wake up call after 3 days of hiking up down mountains and sleeping in tents finally did me in. The hike that morning was only 2 hours, but I staggared up and down the path, listening to my iPod yet again, resisting the urge to curl up in the rainforest and sleep for days. My leg looked and felt like they had an outbreak of chicken pox as the bugs had feasted on them for the past several days.

Awesome Ruins That Go On Forever

And when we turned the bend to see the famous bird’s eye view of Machu Picchu, the moment we had been waiting for days for…

It was covered in an elusive blanket of dense fog!

The moment I've been waiting for?

I didn’t want to complain too much since the fog was apparently a result of the heavy rainfall the night prior. I was just happy that I climbed the trail in the rainy season and managed to escape the rain during day light hours.

Llamas hang out at Machu Picchu

I groaned when our guide told us that we had another half hour of hiking to actually get to Machu Picchu, but I finally did see the breathtaking ruins. I don’t want to spend too much time here talking about Machu Picchu, but I encourage you to Google it if you are interested. Some highlights: archaeologists estimate that it took 50,000 people 70 years to build. The largest rocks are between 1500 and 2000 TONS. It’s tucked away in the mountains, quite hidden. Some areas are designed for accoustics so that when you clap you hear a bird chirp, or a very distinct echo. They designed it so that the shadows on the longest and shortest days of the years cast strange light patterns on rocks, making them look like the eyes of animals. The long and short of it is that it’s a complete marvel what the Incas acheived back them. Some of it seems so impossible that there are theories that aliens had a role in it.

Much Clearer

Amazing Stuff

It was very peaceful and not too terribly busy, since the Peruvian government limits how many people can get in at any given time. Maria gave us a good tour of the place, but we could barely keep our eyes open most of the time. We frantically mowed down on cocao leaves to help alleviate the sleepiness; it only helped marginally. I wanted to sleep so badly! It was a bit of a shame because it really was a sight to be seen. I suppose that should be a given, considering the fact that it’s one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Staggaring views of the mountains from Machu Picchu

Amazing what people did back in the day

Getting back to Cuzco was no small feat. First, it required a 30 minute bus ride (I slept so deeply that my new friends had to rouse me awake). We bummed around the city for a while until our 3 hour train ride commenced. Once we landed in that area, a cab was waiting for us to bring us to Cuzco, a one hour ride. Two memorable things about that. One, check out the kids I saw playing once we got off the train:

I'm pretty sure I was never allowed to play in (active) train tracks as a kid...

The other cute thing was that our tour guide told us that the cabbie would be waiting for us once we got off the train holding a sign with our names on it. Now, I hate to profess narcissm, but I have always had a secret desire to have someone hold a sign with my name on it when I got to a new location (preferrably waiting with a limo with grapes and champagne!). Sure enough, he was holding our sign…with our names spelled wrong…and not a limo but a rickety car that was very good at activating motion sickness.

From now on, you may call me "Essen"

Oh, I love the chaos and unpredictability of third world countries!