I left Arequipa so that I could meet up with a friend in Cuzco. I sent him a message that I was taking a bus that would take nine hours and arrive by 5pm. When it was 8pm, and I hadn't arrived at our hostel yet, I was starting to make people nervous. This, friends, is why you think twice before buying one of the cheapest tickets you could find. Even though they promised the trip would only take nine hours, the bus stopped to let on/off anyone. At anytime. So I watched people get on and off my bus while I sat in one place and practiced patience. So when I finally arrived I was starving and cranky (hangryyyyyyy). Nothing that a little food and friends can't fix.
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| Sexiest dogs in the world |
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| Another view of Cuzco |
The next day, we met up with a guy from Cuzco. He took as to an Incan art museum and explained to us a lot more about the pre-Incan and Incan civilizations in Peru. No photos in the museum, but lets just say they knew their stuff. It's amazing what these groups of people could do with only bronze or stone tools and ceramics. Brilliant. We also went and checked out the local market. This is a must for me in any new city.
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| Main square of Cuzco |
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| Are those balls or kidneys.... balls... definitely balls. |
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| Nom nom |
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| In Cuzco you can buy color!!! |
After the market, we went out to a restaurant with a gorgeous view of the city and also happened to be an excellent cuyeria. Or cui restaurant. Or guinea pig roastery. Raise your hand if you had one as a pet at one point. NOM NOM NOM. I also learned that in their inner ear is a bone that (if you can find it) is shaped like a fox. You put all these little fox bones in a large glass (think scotch/whiskey sized). Then everyone takes turns drinking a shot out of the glass. Usually the little bones stay stuck to the glass, so you keep taking shots until all the bones have been drunk. In our case, we had a smaller glass. I took the first shot (ladies first) and drank all of the fox bones. All the luck for me!!!!!
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| Cui + beer |
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| View from the restaurant featuring Matt and Paul |
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| What does the fox say? |
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| A visit to the cemetery |
The next day we were on our way to Machu Picchu, which turned out to be an adventure! Aguas Calientes is a little town (that exists only for tourism to MP) where people stay the night before they head up to the ruins. Most people take the train to get there. The train is unreasonable expensive. You can avoid the train by taking a tourist van for sixish hours followed by twoish hours of walking along the train tracks. We opted for this route. But we also chose to visit MP in the rainiest month of the year. So the river took out one of the main bridges on the road. Did I mention this was also one of the scariest roads I've ever driven on? Watching construction equipment clear off gravel-slides while we drive by. Tiny bridges I'd be nervous to bike across. Blind corners and sheer cliffs.
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| Cleaning off the road |
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| The van went across that |
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| River of angry chocolate milk |
Because the main bridge was out, we got dropped off and had to walk across a pedestrian bridge and up a hill to catch a ride from the vans stuck on the other side. Our driver had warned us this would happen before we left and that we would have to pay a few soles to the driver on the other side. (These drivers aren't employed by our company, seems only fair that they get some compensation for driving us around, right?) Not complicated. However, we all load up on the van and the driver goes to collect his money. I think it was about $2 per person. UPROAR in the van.
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| Ped Xing |
"Transportation was included in our costs."
"I'm not paying any more! We paid already!!!"
"I don't have any more cash to give him"
I guess I just really don't have patience with people that freak out over stuff like this. The driver didn't either. We were warned. Sometimes things happen. He's really not ripping you off. How do you really not have ANY cash?! I think the discussion ended up with one of us yelling "Pay or get off the damn bus!" (In Spanish of course.) And a whole bunch of people marched their bums off. Bye bye.
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| Not payin' for some fancy train |
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| "Prohibited passing of pedestrians through the tunnel" |
So then we walked a couple of hours and finally arrived in Aguas Calientes. We went to bed basically straight after dinner because we were walking up the stairs in the morning to Machu Picchu. Aka my friend convinced me we were getting up at 4am to climb up some stairs in the rain. And we did! And we got up to the ruins and it was so cloudy and rainy.
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| Train tracks through the middle of Aguas Calientes |
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| Matt and I make dog friends everywhere |
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| Foggy, plus the Temple of the Sun. Tourists aren't allowed in it since someone thought it would be funny to graffiti in it. THANKS GUYS! On the summer and winter solstices, light shines directly through one of the windows on the temple. |
We also had tickets to climb Huyana Picchu, which is a mountain inside the park that looks back down on the ruins. Or another hour of uphill climbing. We wandered around the ruins at the top and hoped that the clouds would clear. They didn't. Then as we were climbing back down, the clouds looked like they might thin out. Instead of getting down off the mountain, we took a second trail up to the small Huyana Picchu, or the little bump in front of the mountain. We found a GREAT spot to sit and watch the clouds clear from the ruins entirely. YES. Great spot to sit and let our legs chill.
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| Huyana Picchu mountain |
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| It got intense guys |
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| THANK YOU CLOUDS |
The clouds stayed away until about two in the afternoon. By two thirty, it was raining and we decided to call it a day. We spent a second night in Aguas Calientes and walked out to take a van the next day. Should be easy right. Same as coming in. Except that we ended up sitting and waiting for these Chilean girls. And our driver was pissed. So he was driving on this lovely road. Angry. And fast. And I've been on a lot of sketchy roads. Never as nervous as I was with this guy. Usually when I'm nervous on a bus, I try to sleep. At least if I die I'll go from sleeping to dead. I was too nervous to sleep on this bus. Why couldn't you be on time Chilean girls?!?!?!?!
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| These will never stop being funny |
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| He even took a selfie with me! |
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| #postcard view |
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| You can tell where the really important/holy sites were because they have this really perfectly crafted stone. This was one of the temples. |
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| This is the Southern Cross, but north is actually pointing down. The reason that that this is backwards is because the Incas used water mirrors to look at the sky. One, it hurts your neck. Two, the sky/stars are holy so its better to look at the reflection. |
After get got back from MP, we had a great night at the hostel trying to get some sleep, but these two drunk French guys were determined to keep everyone awake until 4am. Yay dorm living. The next few days included lots of ruins in the Sacred Valley and around Cuzco. These started with Sacsayhuaman (Sexy Woman) and followed with Pisac and Ollantatambo to name a couple of the famous ones. You't think that I'd be tired of seeing all these ruins, but it's really impressive. Each one has a magic of its own, and it was so much fun to wander around in all of them.
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| Incan temple up on a hill |
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| Portal carved into a stone face. How bout them 90 degree angles! |
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| Looking down from Ollantaytambo |
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| Terraces of Pisac |
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| Down the valley from Ollantaytambo |
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| Viewpoint of the Sacred Valley |
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| Puzzle masters |
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| In the middle of chewing |
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| Sacsayhuaman, Matt for scale |
