On Saturday we woke up to another bright sunny day. It was my birthday, and our plan was to spend the day shopping for souvenirs and sightseeing before we had to head home.
Here are a couple more photos of our hotel.
I had booked a room with a King bed, but they must have been in short supply because they actually put Andy and I in a suite. We had two bedrooms, one with a King bed and one with two double beds, and a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub. We felt fancy!
Connie wanted to sleep in on Saturday because she'd been sleeping poorly all week, so before we met them in the hotel breakfast area Andy and I went out to stroll around the square and see some sites. These were the same cathedrals we'd seen the first night, but now we weren't in a hurry and it was day time, so they were so pretty to see.
The fountains and flowers were really cool also.
After we'd walked around for a bit we headed back to the hotel for lunch and then all of us headed out to sightsee and get souvenirs for ourselves and our kiddos.
We passed a chocolate museum that had a Machu Picchu replica made out of chocolate.
We saw more dogs wearing clothes. So strange!
For lunch we went to a place called Fuego. Connie and Sugi had eaten here for lunch on the first day when Andy and I didn't make it, but Andy wanted to try it and they didn't mind going there again, so we gave it a try. Connie got a 'chicken' sandwich that we are fairly sure was not actually chicken. Possibly it was cuy (a staple in Peru), which is guinea pig. The rest of us ate burgers, which were good.
During lunch I read a blog that said that when in Cusco you should be sure to visit San Pedro market, so we walked down there to do some more shopping. It was crazy. A ton of little stalls selling everything imaginable.
We ended up buying some additional souvenirs here.
As we were leaving the market we passed this lady outside, selling freshly skinned cuy. Barf. If you zoom in you can see their teeth. This is the stuff of nightmares, right here.
On that gross note, we headed back to our hotel to collect our belongings and get to the airport. We had asked the hotel to get us a taxi that would fit all of us at once, and they were happy to comply. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight.
We arrived back in Lima around 11pm, but they had lost our luggage somehow. We and another group (who ironically were also LDS and from Albuquerque - what are the odds?!?) waited and waited while all the luggage came out, and none of ours were there. Luckily, in direct contrast to our last visit to the Lima airport a week ago, we found an employee who was extremely helpful and immediately began calling all sorts of people to find out what happened to our bags. Eventually they found them all still on the plane, stashed behind some other cargo.
We had an overnight layover in Lima (our flight to Atlanta wasn't until 9am), so we had a lot of time to kill. We couldn't check our bags or go through security until the flight counters opened the next morning, so we headed to find food. We were surprised (and happy!) to learn that most of the restaurants were still open. We were way past ready for dinner! We ended up eating at McDonalds because it sounded good and they were advertising that they had a deal for 4 Big Mac Meals for $20, so why not?!
It was around 12:30am when we sat down to eat, so it was technically not my birthday anymore, but since we were still awake it counted. We stuck a fry in my hamburger to make a birthday cake and candle.
After dinner we all headed back down to mine and Andy's "spot" that we'd spent so many hours in before. The tile floor wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, and the airport was a little bit cold, but at least our hallway was super dead and quiet! We all slept quite a bit more than we thought we would -- probably because a week of adventuring was catching up with us.
Finally we boarded the plane back to the U.S. Connie and Sugi had seats right in front of Andy and I. On this flight they fed us breakfast and then lunch, so that made the time go by faster.
As were getting nearer to Atlanta Andy realized that we were flying over Naples, Florida -- our old home! I'm not sure which of his million photos actually IS Naples, but it was cool that the ocean looked so pretty down below.
Atlanta is where we parted ways. Our flights left within about 45 minutes of each other but we headed to El Paso and Connie and Sugi headed to Denver.
I'm so glad that Connie and Sugi chose to come on the trip with us. It really was the trip of a lifetime, and was so much better than I'd even been imagining for the last 20 years that I've been wanting to go. It would have been great whether they were there or not, but I do feel like having them there just made it even better. Now we've gotta start planning our next adventure!!
Finally the day arrived - Machu Picchu! We ate breakfast at our hotel and then met Chino outside to wait in line for a bus to take us up to the ruins. You can actually hike from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu as well, but since we had tickets for an early morning hike up Machu Picchu mountain, the bus was the way to go! It was a very grey day, and we began to be super worried that after all the nice weather we'd had all week, TODAY was going to be the day that we got rained on all day. It was raining as we stood in line to get on the bus, and it was also raining as we headed up the mountain.
Between the four of us we took an extremely huge amount of photos at Machu Picchu, and many of them are similar. Since it took me about a thousand hours just to get organized enough to get this far with blog posting, I did NOT go through and try to sort out every single duplicate and/or pick which of the many, many photos were my favorites. So prepare yourself. You're about to see a lot of pictures! If you get bored, give up or scroll faster! 😉
When we got off the bus and entered Machu Picchu, we were amazed by the amazing size of it all! Oh, wait. Nope. You couldn't see anything at all. The clouds were so thick that we could barely see each other, much less any ruins.
As we continued up the path, the views just got better and better...
After about 10 minutes the clouds finally started thinning out a bit and we could start to see a little bit of the ruins. It was very mystical. There weren't very many people there that early in the morning, so it really kind of felt like we'd stepped back in time. The plan was for Chino to take us on the entire tour of Machu Picchu in about an hour, and then he would depart and we would hike up Machu Picchu mountain and then come back and do the tour again at our own pace.
This building is called the watch tower, and it's set up on a high point so that they could see if anyone was coming up their mountain.
There were random llamas wandering around, which was fun.
This llama is promising Andy that there really are ruins here.
This is the llamas' home, so something you just have to wait for them to decide to move off the path.
Or go around and hope they don't feel like biting you. Do llamas bite? I'm not actually sure about that!
As we walked, Chino told us about some of the history. The doorways were wide and tall because the king wouldn't walk anywhere. There had to be room for him to be carried. We also learned that if it's a double-framed doorway, this is where the high ranking people lived. Ordinary people got single doorways. These grass steps (they were everywhere) were where crops were planted to feed all the people who lived here.
We passed a couple of these rocked up openings, which Chino said are tombs. Apparently in the next year or two these will be excavated to see what is inside.
The cylinder rock here is a remnant that shows how they built the city with these huge rocks they had to move. They would roll them into place using these cylinder rocks. Obviously once this one was in place the roller rock could not be removed.
This guy was not super pleased that we were walking past him.
Most of Machu Picchu is made up of randomly shaped rocks stacked together to make walls and buildings, but at this temple they made an effort to cut the rocks and make them more square.
This is another tomb.
Over the course of the hour that we were there, the clouds thinned out more and more, which we were really glad for. We also did not get rained on, which was great.
This big rock is apparently carved to match the skyline of the mountain range behind it. Since it's so cloudy, we can't see the mountain range behind it, so we'll just take Chino's word for it. On the left is the trailhead of Huayna Picchu, and apparently the people would come touch this rock to get energy before making the trek up the mountain.
It's hard to tell from the photo, but this was a row of homes that all had windows lined up in the almost exactly the same place so you could see all the way down the row. It's really cool to see how planned out everything was. We were told that it took about 70 years to build the city.
I feel like the photo below makes it look like the ruins are perched over the edge of a cliff. Really it's just the clouds covering the ground below.
This is the women's temple. Only the high ranking women would get to go here, and these pools of water on the ground were the mirrors they used to look at themselves.
In the background of this one you can see a bunch of the crop terraces.
Machu Picchu was much larger than any of us realized. It truly is an entire abandoned city on the top of this mountain. I can't imagine how amazing it would have been to be the people who discovered it an unburied it from 400 years of jungle growth. Just in case you were wondering, it is estimated that Machu Picchu was built between 1400-1500 AD, and it was abandoned about 100 years later because the Incas didn't want the Spanish to find and ruin it. As they left, it is believed that the burned the forest trails behind them so that nobody would be able to climb the mountain or even know there was anything there. Over the next 300-400 years the jungle grew up to cover almost everything. It was never discovered by outsiders until 1911.
Funny story - as Chino was telling us about this history, we had the biggest accent-related misunderstanding! Chino was telling us that the guy who discovered Machu Picchu had come from a jail in the U.S., and most of the artifacts and things that were found were now back in jail. We were so confused. We could not for the life of us figure out what he was talking about. Finally when he started saying something about the jail giving a grant to come do more research, it dawned on me that he was saying YALE, not JAIL. We felt so dumb, but it was kind of hilarious. I'm sure the looks on our faces when he was telling us all about this guy coming from jail were outrageous. Chino was expecting us to be impressed and instead we were thoroughly befuddled.
Sort of towards the middle of the city there was a big grassy area that is believed to have been used as a town square. Apparently when Machu Picchu was first discovered there was a huge monolith in the square, but at some point one of the Peruvian presidents was coming to see Machu Picchu and his helicopter hit and broke the monolith as it was landing in this field.
They've reconstructed the grass roofs on a few of the building so that tourists can get an idea of what it looked like originally.
After our tour ended we said goodbye to Chino and headed back up to hike Machu Picchu mountain. Our entrance time was between 8-9am, and we got there around 8:40.
This trail was amazing [ly hard]! We didn't realize that it was basically going to be one giant stone staircase climbing up the side of the mountain, but that's essentially what it was, and some parts the stairs were super steep. If anyone has ever done the Manitou Incline in Colorado Springs -- that's what we ultimately decided it was felt like. Except we were doing it after we'd just hiked 50+ miles all week, so it was a smidge tough. According to AllTrails this is 1.2 miles up with 1800 feet of elevation gain (and then 1.2 miles down). If that's true than it is actually slightly less intense than Manitou (which claims to be 1978 feet of elevation gain in under 1 mile), but it's similar!
As we headed up the mountain we ended up in more clouds, and the air was so hot and wet. Between that and the stairs, and the fear that we were going to get all the way to the top and not even actually be able to SEE anything, our thoughts were not all super positive. There was a lot of "Whose idea was this?!?" and "Why are we killing ourselves for this when we've already hiked a ton!?!?" It didn't help that at every overlook stop we could see NOTHING and then as we got closer to the top people coming down kept telling us "Don't rush. We waited up there for an hour for the clouds to lift and they didn't. You can't see anything."
However, we persevered and as we walked we did a lot of praying that the clouds would lift and we'd be able to see some nice views.
I love this photo (below) because it looks like we're heading up into a tunnel. The trees and bushes were so thick! It was a little tricky because a lot of the stair were covered in moss and/or fallen leaves, and with the air so wet, everything was slippery.
There were a few spots that were pretty narrow with some huge drop-offs, so sometimes it was kind of nice that we couldn't see too far!
Sometimes the clouds would lift a little and we began to have hope that when we reached the top we might actually be able to see something!
We found a new color of Andean orchids.
Some of the stairs were so narrow from front to back that you either had to just step with your toes, or go sideways. Going up wasn't a big deal, but coming back down was a bit sketchy.
The stairs seriously just went on and on and on. You'd think you saw the top, and then it would just turn and keep going up, up, up. Connie is not pleased.
This was the only part of the trail that was not stairs, and it was REALLY narrow. Don't want to trip and fall off the side here!
The last part of the trail was soooo steep! And it doesn't help that by that point your legs are like jelly and you feel like you could topple over at any moment! Connie made use of the wall to keep her balance.
Andy was the first to reach the top, I was a couple minutes behind him, and Connie and Sugi were just a couple more minutes. And we were soooooo pleased and grateful to see blue sky!!
And way down below...Machu Picchu! It was hard to believe that just an hour before we were way down there.
The peak right behind Machu Picchu is Huayna Picchu, which is the more popular mountain to climb. We didn't realize how much higher Machu Picchu mountain is until we got up there.
The photo below shows where we came from yesterday. If you look super, super closely, you can see a tiny neon green dot just to the right of the clouds (on the left), and just below the ridge of the mountain. The ridge is what where we crossed over after climbing up the backside of that mountain, and the green dot is Llactapata. We then followed that ridge down, and the brown zigzag line you can see in about the middle of this photo is the trail we came down to cross over the river and follow the railroad tracks to Aguas Calientes. It was actually really cool to know that less than 24 hours ago we were WAY. OVER. THERE. The green and red buildings you can see down by the river here are the Hidroelectrica station where we ate lunch before our final 6 miles.
While we were up top this tiny cloud came drifting by and completely obscured our view of Machu Picchu. We had to wait for it to float on past. It's a really fun feeling to be higher than the clouds, and watching them float by down below you.
Connie is attempting to point to Machu Picchu, but our aim was way off!
I always love finding these random geological markers in interesting places. This one was on top of Machu Picchu mountain.
As we headed back down the mountain the clouds stayed away, and now we got to see what we had been missing at the overlooks on the way up. The views were amazing!
Going down took a LOT of concentration. It was still pretty wet and slippery, and it was so steep! At one point we were going down a steep mossy staircase (Connie and Sugi were just ahead of me, Andy was pretty far behind), and I was carefully watching where I put my feet, but then we were passing a group of guys who had stopped to rest on their way up, and they said hello. I looked up to say hello back, and in that moment my foot slipped on moss and I fell. I landed on my bum, but I was on the cliff side of the trail (luckily only a 4-5 foot cliff at that point I think), and I was off balance and actually began falling backwards off the edge. It all happened in a split second. I flung my arms out to grab anything nearby and somehow sliced my hand open on whatever it was I grabbed. Luckily the guys who were right there had lightning fast reflexes and they grabbed my leg and then my arm and pulled me back up so I didn't actually fall. If I had fallen I'm sure it would have been fine - I really think I would have just landed in the bushes a few feet below, but judging by the slice on my hand, they might have been brambly bushes and I might have had a few more cuts to deal with.
We waited for Andy to catch up because he's the one who had been carrying our first aid kit around in his camel back all week. This was the first time we actually needed to use it, which I'm counting as a win. Sadly though, Andy informed us that because we hadn't needed it all week, and because he figured we were done with our dangerous trek...he had left the first aid kit back in the hotel! Of course. So instead I wrapped Andy's bandana around my hand (which was extra sanitary considering that I'd been using it as a sweat rag all morning...barf...), and we continued on our way. I still have a little scar where I cut my hand, so that'll be my "I almost fell off Machu Picchu Mountain" souvenir.
When we got back down to the bottom of the trail we got to go around the tour loop again. It looked so different in the sunshine! We were feeling incredibly blessed to have had the opportunity to wander around in the fog with few people, and now to get to do it again in the sunshine. It was the perfect ending to an incredible week. None of these photos are color corrected, but some show the actual colors better than others. The grass was so green, and the sky was so blue. It was breathtaking.
As we came out of the trailhead entrance, we were told by some employees that we needed to go all the way back down to the beginning and follow the path from there. Since we'd already down the first part of the path twice now, we waited until nobody was looking an hopped over a rope real quick, jogged the 30 feet to the next rope that put us back on the main path, and continued on our way. We're not really sure why that had that tiny section blocked off. Seems like they were trying to control traffic, but we didn't have it in us to add another 1/4 mile to our trek when we could see where we wanted to be 30 feet away. I guess we're rule breakers!
As we followed the path, we saw some people taking photos up by the watch tower. Chino had told us that was the best place to get a good photo, so we headed up there and took some photos as well. Right after we left that area a worker came and started telling everyone they had to leave and couldn't be up there, so we're not really sure what was happening. We're glad we got our photos though!
These llamas are interested in being on their own postcard.
These stairs were in the sides of the walls in some places. We assume they were the way to get from one farm terrace to the next.
Here is a Machu Picchu lizard!
Finally the time came for us to depart. There were so many more people there than there had been that morning! The line to get out and the line to catch a bus back down to town were both long! We were a little worried that we might not have time to grab lunch before catching our train, but it turned out fine.
We ate at this little restaurant that was near both our hotel and the train station.
Chino had given us our train tickets and instructions on how we were going to get back to Cusco, but this was the first time we had to navigate without him, so we were a little bit nervous but mostly okay since Andy speaks Spanish. Getting into the train station was insane. They had one little gate open and there were a gazillion people all trying to shove their way through it. There was no line, no order, nothing. You just had to hold tight to your belongings and shove your way in with everyone else. Luckily, once we actually got inside things were much more calm! Our tickets told us which area to stand in, so we were able to find it easily.
Our train had huge side windows and windows on the roof as well. We were meant to ride the train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo, and then Chino said we would transfer to a bus to go back to Cusco. The train ride along the river was also beautiful! We passed a few other batches of Incan ruins along the way, and also some really pretty farms and cute little villages. Plus the surrounding mountain peaks were amazing.
Our understanding is that usually you can ride the train all the way to Cusco, but our train stopped in Ollantaytambo and they made everyone get off. As we disembarked into a huge crowd of people, we really had no idea where we were supposed to go to meet our bus. We kind of just followed the crowd and hoped we'd get there. As we were walking we started passing a bunch of guys holding signs with names on them and I wondered if that's what we were looking for. But Chino had said to go on a bus, so we just kept walking. I suddenly saw a guy holding a sign our names on it (among others), so I stopped. Andy, Sugi, and Connie had all not noticed him, so it's a good thing I saw it or we would have passed right by. The guy waited for the other few people to find him and then he led us to a large van. Apparently this was our 'bus'!
As we drove back to Cusco we passed some super pretty valleys and farms (made even more so by the fact that it was nearing sunset), but we also passed some really sad looking towns and villages as well. You would see a house that looked like it should for sure be abandoned and condemned, but then there would be clothes on the rail, or a light on inside. It was just another huge dose of reality about the way other people live. We are incredibly blessed.
When we arrived back in Cusco our "bus" dropped us off at a spot where another taxi was waiting to take us to our hotel. However, Andy and Sugi realized that our hotel was only about 200 feet away, so we told the taxi he was not needed and we would just walk. We went back to the same hotel we'd been at before. They'd been kind enough to store our luggage all week.
After we dropped off our things we headed out to find some dinner. We were a bit hangry by then, so when all the places kept telling us it was going to be an hour long wait, we were getting discouraged. Finally we decided to just go to one though, and we settled in to wait.
The street that the restaurant was on was super narrow, but it was so cute!
Finally it was our turn to go in and eat. Yum!
After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep. Our adventure was officially over, but we still had Saturday (my birthday) to spend in Cusco sightseeing and shopping before our flight out that evening.
