Manchu Pichu!

Antibiotics are miraculous! I woke up feeling better and was confident that I could make it to Machu Pichu. Alyssa had purchased tickets for the bus the night before so that we would not have to do the 2 hour climb up 3000 stairs at 4am (I did it the last time and damn is it a lot of stairs!). We arrived at the bus station right on time but as we waited in line to board, Alyssa realized she'd left the tickets in her luggage at the hostel. She ran all the way back to get them and then we boarded the bus. Once in our seats, I mentioned that I wasn't sure if I was going to get another Machu Pichu stamp in my passport because I'm afraid I will run out of space. Alyssa looked shocked and asked if we needed our passports. Of course we did! But hers was back in her luggage. We got off the bus and she ran back to the hostel for a second time. Finally we boarded the bus and made the 20 minute journey up the mountain.
I had been worried about rain since the clouds were thick and you couldn't even see the ruins but as we stood there, the clouds parted and the sun came out, illuminating everything. It appeared that our tour guide had been late as well, so it was no big deal tht we were 15 minutes behind. We began with a two hour guided tour.

I had been on a guided tour here two years ago so I was expecting a lot of information about the different temples, what the parts of the city were used for etc. Sadly, I thought our guide completely wasted our time and was more concerned about people pronouncing Cusco correctly than anything else. Because our time was limited and needed to be back down in Aguas Calientes by 1:00pm, we left the tour early and walked around by ourselves.

There are tons of alpaca just roaming around and they don't seem to mind if you pet them (although this one looks like it wants to bite Alyssa's face off). The grounds of Machu Pichu were monitored much more than they had been in 2011. Parts of the area were roped off so that you couldn't walk through and there were security guards everywhere making sure you didn't touch things or sit on the walls. I was a little disappointed by this because I loved how natural it seemed before but I understand the need to preserve the site.

I had wanted to take Alyssa up to Waynapichu (which is the big mountain over looking Machu Pichu) because you get such an amazing view of the ruins. Unfortunately, you had to buy the ticket to Waynapichu weeks in advance and they had been sold out by the time we got to Cusco. We did buy tickets to the "Montana", which is the mountain on the other side that is supposed to have good views as well. When we got to the Montana, they told us it was an hour and a half climb and I knew I was still in no shape to complete such a task. I told Alyssa to go ahead and leave me if she wanted to go to the top, but she had hurt her ankle the day before so all of the stairs weren't helping.

We decided to stop at the first view point, which was 30 minutes up the mountain, to take some pictures. There were tons of other people there and it looked like everyone else had also decided not to go to the top. We did talk to a couple who had made it all the way and they said it was so cloudy up there that you couldn't even see anything. That made our decision for us and we decided to head back down and walk up to the sun gate. The walk to the sun gate was a bit easier but we still only went half way, stopping at the best overlook. We decided to go back down and walk around to ruins for a bit before we had to head back.

Once back in Aguas Calientes, we needed to collect our bags from the hostel and head to the train station. I still hadn't eaten a proper meal in 2 days and felt that I should eat something after all of that walking but sadly we didn't have the time. We got on the train just in time and it whisked us off to the hydroelectric station.

From the hydroelectric station, we caught our bus back to Cusco. It was a 6 hour drive but I didn't care; I was so happy that I wasn't feeling as badly as I had the day before. As we drove, there were huge rockslides that had covered the road in rocks. We maneuvered around these fairly well but when we reached the first river, it had definitely flooded the road and covered it in rocks. The driver didn't hesitate and plowed through the water. I wasn't too worried since growing up in Tucson, I had often floated my car through rivers covering the road during monsoon season and knew what a car could handle. Then we came upon the second river. Cars on both sides had stopped and people had gotten out of their cars to take stock. This river was really flowing! And the road was covered in boulders throughout making it impossible to cross. The driver got out and looked at it for a minute before getting back in, starting up the bus and hitting the gas pedal. Everyone on board started screaming for him to stop, certain that we were going to get swept over the side of the road and down the cliff that the river ran over. Thankfully, he manuevered his way through and we made it safely to the other side. We all rewarded him with huge applause since we didn't really want to be stuck sleeping in a bus on the side of the road.
When we arrived back in Cusco, I was starving and wanted to get some food. Alyssa and I got into a bit of an argument over the fact that she had purchased some this for me (Gatorade, ritz, etc) and I had not yet paid her back. I felt like she was being absolutely crazy and was exhausted by the past few days, so I went to dinner by myself. I headed to "Nick's" which is a popular restaurant in Cusco that I had been to with Katie two years earlier. I ordered a quesadilla although I wasn't able to eat much of it since my stomach still wasn't feeling right. I headed back to the hostel hoping that Alyssa and I could just put the fighting behind us. We were obviously both sick and tired and I'm sure we were irritable more because of that than anything else.

Posted with Blogsy