Macchu Pichu--continued

I forgot that I had written anything about the day we went to Macchu Pichu, so I re-wrote about all of it. And now I'm cutting it down again!

Our next stop was the train station to catch the train to Aguas Calientes. I managed to squeeze in a cat nap on the way up. :)

Then from Aguas Calientes, we took a bus up the famously switchbacked road to Macchu Pichu.
And…finally…we made it to see one of the newest members of the seven wonders of the world—and it was absolutely stunning. Its setting up in the greenery-covered mountains is breath taking and I can easily say that it ranks as the top man-made site I’ve ever seen. (Oh look at me, I’m turning into a South American guidebook—it must be ranked as the best something.) I’m struck by how normal climbing around Macchu Pichu seemed. It didn’t even seem like we were doing anything out of the norm by climbing up the terraces (and revising our site-seeing trajectory to allow for a less strenuous route—I can’t even imagine having done the Inca Trail, I think I would have thrown my hands up in exasperation after the first 10 minutes of trekking). We wound our way around one tour group after another, swat at the invisible bugs that were eating our arms (I got five bites on one elbow and one on my hand that swelled up about ten times the normal size of my mosquito bites…they now look like little warts…boo!) and chased after a few llamas. My favorite part was just sitting on a terrace, marveling at the skill of the people who had built this hidden city up in the mountains. What was this place really used for? Why did they decide to build it here, and how long must it have taken to build it? I tried to imagine what it would be like to be one of the workers who built the stone walls or carved the stones into their astonishingly fitted shapes. It’s like putting together a puzzle, except vertically and with enormous pieces whose weight requires immense strength just to move, let alone put on top of the last puzzle piece. Then it happened, ass we sat there, contemplating the marvels of the Incas—the bombardment of the Peruvian tourists wanting pictures with the gringas. It had actually started a little bit earlier, but we managed to duck behind rock columns to avoid the onslaught. But as we sat there on our terrace, without a place to hide, they swarmed over like bees to honey. One after another, group after group…I haven’t actually seen this happen to any other tourists yet. Soo thinks it’s because we look like nice people. That could be true. What must it be like to be a real celebrity, with people constantly staring and wanting pictures with you? I’ve got to hand it to those that keep their cool and continue letting people take their pictures. I find myself just wanting to run and hide! After the fourth or fifth group, we made our escape and joined the waiting line for the bus back down to Aguas Calientes.

We made it!!! Yama, yama...please don't spit on me. I'm your friend, I promise! Soo at Hagrid's hut


You know...hangin' out at Macchu Pichu

Some cutesy gals

We bided our time doing some shopping and heavy bargaining as we waited for our return train to Ollantaytambo. I related to one lady about her soap opera (which is one of the same ones I watch with Vanessa) and managed getting a really good price on a bracelet. (Stop buying jewelry, Tina, stop it! It always reminds me of the endless bartering for jewelry in South Africa with Cristina.) We caught our train to Ollantaytambo, caught some random tourist bus back to Cusco, where to my happy surprise, we found Peruvian trick or treaters filling the streets shouting, “XALLOWEEN!” at store tenants and passersby. We couldn’t resist but join in the festivity, so we went to the grocery store, bought a bag of toffees and handed out candy to the trick or treaters. In true Peruvian fashion, the same ones came back again and again, sometimes wearing different masks or capes (sometimes the same) to try to get more candy.

When our candy supplies ran out, we made our way back to our hostel where we found early signs of the Halloween party that was going to ensue later that night. We broke out our grocery store masks to show our festivity and consequently ended up getting reamed by an American roommate who was disappointed at our lack of enthusiasm for our American holiday. As much as I would have loved to celebrate my personal favorite holiday with gusto, I was too tired to go mix and mingle with the high school-like crowd that filled our hostel. I ate and shared my authentic Halloween candy from Jill (thank you, my love!). And we played cards with some lovely girls from Wales who were also lacking the energy to join the crowd outside our doors. With quiet vindictiveness, I reveled in the fact that the roommate who had been giving us crap for not celebrating with American-zest and joining the party outside came to join our card game for about a quarter of the evening. (He had dressed up as one of the traditional highlands ladies, which left me torn with one half of me wanting to double up laughing while the other half wanted to slap him for being culturally insensitive—but where else would he have the understanding of how funny that could be than in a hostel of Peruvian travelers? Oh the irony…) We finally went to sleep around 2:30 am, with the music and party still going full blast outside. Happy Halloween. : )

The next day we slept in a little bit, then took a bus up to the ruins of Tambo Machay (where we again started getting hassled for pictures) which was a temple whose water is said to have curative properties.

Then we walked to the next ruin back toward Cusco, Puca Pucara, which was probably used as a stopping point for travelers back in the day.

We continued our 8 km walk back to Cusco. We lucked out with a perfectly sunny day for our mini-trek out in the Cusqueñan countryside—it was a nice change to be outside the city, walking, enjoying the fresh air and exercise, site-seeing and just enjoying being in a different atmosphere.

Next we went to the ruins of Sacsayhuaman which is another set of famous ruins around Cusco.

Storytime…(on self-guided tours, one must always break out the Lonely Guide to figure out just what it is that they’re seeing…)

Llama rocks—did they really do that on purpose? Or could it have been a coincidence?

Then we headed over to see the Jesus statue, where we ended up meeting four other American travelers with whom we spent our evening.

For dinner, we decided to get adventurous—time for the traditional cuy (guinea pig) and alpaca. Soo and Ken from Montana were definitely the most adventurous, digging right into the guinea pig. They actually grossed out the people at the table next to us, by sitting there, playing with their cuy. :) Gnawing on legs...

Oy! I tried it, and didn’t find it to be terribly appetizing but hey, I tried it, right? The alpaca tasted like a leaner version of beef, and with half the fat of a steak, it was definitely healthier. : ) But Dorita told me that I can’t eat alpaca anymore since they’re endangered. Whoops! No more alpaca for me.

After dinner, Kristin (Ken’s sister) and I convinced the group that we needed to find dessert. Ha! On our quest to find cheapy dessert, we got tracked down by a girl selling finger puppets (after we’d all just bought finger puppets) and the two of us got in a heated debate about whether or not she had a llama finger puppet. “You’re a liar!” “No, YOU’RE the liar!” was our conversation for about a block. It’s one of those moments where I know I need to be the adult, but I find myself slipping back into adolescence…and finally to end the discussion, Brad from Philly stepped in and bought a llama finger puppet (which obviously she did have).

Ken and Kristin left to get some rest before their Inca Trail while the other four of us decided to see what the Cusco nightlife was all about. It involves being inundated by free drink coupons by bunches of different bars, so we exploited about four such bars with their coupons and danced away our evening. Like true gentlemen, Kyle and Brad walked us back to our hostel at which time Brad told me he hated me. I’m not entirely sure how that happened, but surely it was an interesting way to end the evening…

We woke up a few hours later to catch our plane back to Lima, and after arriving back at the Flying Dog, we were pretty much listless for the rest of Soo’s time in Lima. (P.S. Things with my ex-Peruvian were not weird, in fact—nice!) Soo and I had a grand time. And now I have my quintessential Macchu Pichu picture: