Day 8 - That time we almost didn't come back

The Monday July Sixth.

      I still can't believe I went to Macchu Picchu yesterday!

      So today I have a well earned day off for teacher appreciation day, I'd say that three days of work totally qualifies me for that! Me and Hunter used the morning off to explore the old neighborhood where a lot of the walls are actually ancient Incan walls made out of these huge stones, we even found one with twelve corners. We were going to go to the sacred valley with Germany in the afternoon but frustratingly she wasn't at home, so we waited as long as we could but then we decided we'd just have to try and go ourselves!          

     On the bus ride there I was still so tired from yesterday that I feel asleep thinking that Hunter would be awake to watch for our stop, which was like an hour away. However when I awoke an hour and fifteen minutes later, Hunter was asleep too! Then I looked outside and we were in the middle of fricking nowhere. I mean it was just field after brown field with barely a rundown house in sight. This all sent me into a panic attack, should we get off? Could we call someone? How would we survive the night in the open if we had too?! I woke Hunter up.

      We decided we had two options, get off and pray that a taxi would happen to come along even though we barely saw any other cars, or wait it out for God knows how long until we reached an urban center. The bus was coming to another stop, and we decided to get off, but just as we were reaching the front door the bus started moving and the door was slammed in our faces. We thought we were unlucky but when we saw that the next stop was the one we needed all along we realized just how lucky we were! Oh what a relief!

      We then got an extremely overpriced taxi to Moray, yet more Incan ruins. Where we promptly had to buy an extremely overpriced ticket. And then after all that money we were sorely disappointed, they were basically another set of terraces, used by the Incans as a kind of experiment to see at which level and corresponding temperature different crops grew best. Especially considering we'd just been to Macchu Picchu it wasn't that interesting. 

    However the boringness of Moray only amplified the awesomeness of the next place we went, Maras Salinas. They are basically hundreds and hundreds of naturally filling 'ponds' or Incan built rectangular pools with natural salty water from the surrounding mountain springs. Next to Macchu Picchu these were the most beautiful thing I've seen here!

Wow!

The locals here wait for the water to evaporate and leave the salt and then harvest and sell it! I got a lot!

So many!

Hunter being amazed at the salt :)

A very windy day!

More wind!

    On the way back we avoided another bus debacle by taking a shared Taxi. Me and Hunter discussed how even though we've only known each other for less than a week, we already know so much about each other, and feel like we've been friends for a long time! I guess that's what happens when you share a work, a room, and after work activities! It was a beautiful drive and I took lots of pictures on my phone.

In Cuzco we stopped in a square and the taxi driver was hurrying us out, and I was fumbling with my money belt trying to get the right change. However it wasn't until a few minutes later when we went into a beautiful church and I reached for my phone to take a picture that I realized it wasn't there! I couldn't believe it, it hadn't been stolen or broken, or got some virus. I had personally left in on the seat of a taxi. All the money belts and security measures in the world can't protect against stupid. I thought back to the moments after we had gotten out of the taxi with disgust, how had we run across the road laughing? The more time passed the more it sunk in, and the worse I felt. Had this really happened to me? What was worse was I had backed up all of my photos except for those from yesterday, Macchu fricking Picchu! I couldn't believe how unlucky that was.

      Hunter took me for coffee to help me feel better which was nice, but I knew I had to call me parents. They were very disappointed in and for me, and we talked a while about any way we could possible get it back, using find my iPhone, ect. 

       Then suddenly my Dad said, 'Hold on I'm getting a call from Adrianne' My heart jumped and I was so relieved, there really are good people in this world! The guy on the other end of the line spoke only Spanish so my Dad passed him to me, overjoyed I listened as he said 'how much are you willing to pay' my heart sunk, so much for good people. At this point my host mother María Elena took over and with a long conversation and a stern tone was able to negotiate $125 USD for it, and a meeting place in the plaza de armas that night. I will be forever grateful to her for doing that for me.

Back in my house in Colorado, my Dad could hear the whole conversation but couldn't understand any of it!

      So it was to be a swap. I felt like I was in some kind of spy movie as my whole house discussed the details. We decided to take as many precautions as possible. The five of us, Me, María, Hunter, Aton, and Germany where to go in two taxis, and me and María were to wait at the assigned location while the other three watched closely from across the plaza, if all went well María was to stroke her hair and then we'd all meet at Starbucks to put on our disguises so that the criminals couldn't follow us home and figure out where we lived.

      We arrived exactly at 8:30 and I leaned against the side of the assigned building thinking of how I would get the pepper spray out of my bra if needed. But all was not to plan, two police cars and four police motorcycles happened to be in front of the very same building. What rotten, rotten luck! I couldn't believe it, I knew that as soon as the Taxi driver saw them he would bolt, if he didn't believe we called them ourselves! And so we waited and waited, in the freezing cold, and the backup team went into the building behind us, none of us acknowledged get the others, but me and María stayed out in the cold. Forty five minutes later we gave up, he wasn't coming.

     We all meet back at Starbucks and everyone was telling me sorry, but they couldn't feel the bitter disappointed, my hopes had been so high!

    We went home in two different groups anyway just to be safe, and as I sat sadly on the couch the phone rang again. And it was him again, but I didn't let my hopes get up to much this time. María preformed another miracle negotiation and set up a new meeting point on an overpass closer to our house the next morning.

     As I fell asleep I reflected on what a roller coaster day of emotions it had been, and was apprehensive to do it all again tomorrow.