Day 7 - Macchu Picchu

Sunday July Fifth

     Brace yourself for pictures... It's the Macchu Picchu post!!!

    I woke up in our hostel with a surreal feeling, I couldn't believe I was actually going to get to see Macchu Picchu! Actually I almost didn't as our alarm didn't go off and we only had half an hour to get ready, pack, eat breakfast, and be out the door! It was like Dejavu of yesterday when Fransisco came to pick us up and we weren't ready! A very rushed and panicked half an hour later we made it on the bus just in time. 

    And up, up, up we went along this extremely narrow dirt road with a sharp cliff on one side and buses going both directions! That was scary.

    Macchu Picchu took my breath away both literally and figuratively, located atop a high mountain in the Andes, it truly does deserve to be one of the seven wonders of the world. I just saw one of the seven most amazing places in the entire world! That's crazy!

We were sad at first that it was such a cloudy day, but soon realized it made it even more magical!

Cecilia, Chelsy, Tommy, Hunter, and me!

So excited!

     The company I had gotten my trip through provided us with a tour guide who told us a few interesting things like how most of the buildings there are devoted to astronomy, which is why it's built at the top of a mountain, because the stars were a very important aspect of Incan culture,

Reflecting pools that help track the Sun's movement and can be used to look at the stars

These three open windows line up with the stars in Orion's Belt! 

This rock formation was made to look like a condor, with the slanted black rocks in the background being the wings, and the curved stone the neck feathers. Falcons were extremely important as they were thought to be the messengers between the earth and the gods in the sky,

The sun temple, you can see two windows that correspond exactly with the angle of the sun in the winter and summer solstices! I can't even imagine how complicated it was to construct it like that!

     The tour guide also told us that no bodies of children were found there even though there were both women and men which was interesting, and that the government is planning on closing Macchu Picchu to the public pretty soon as the enormous weight of all those tourists is making the ground sink! So if you haven't been go soon! 

      

A beautiful stone ally way, can you imagine how amazing this place must of been before?

These two people are so cool :)

We had a little bit of fun pretending to be real estate agents and saying things like, "well this one comes with particularly good storage for stones' or 'I wonder if this one comes with a llama-mower the lawn is just unruly!'

So many steps, so little air...

Terraces! I could totally see myself living in my own little stone house, farming my own little terrace every day, how cool would that be?!

Me in a window of a reconstructed house with a replica of the original thatched roof 

Oh Tommy! Haha :)

Happiness!

Who needs doorsteps anyway?

So many amazing photos!

Authentic modern day ladder, woah!

And quite possibly the most amazing photo of them all. Hunter you look stunning.

     After all this exploring we went and ate a good lunch and then went for a hike without Tommy, who being a Med student self diagnosed some tendon problem or other in his knee and had to sit this one out :(

      We wanted to go for this hike up to a sun gate that was supposed to take about three hours but we only had one and a half hours so we went double time, practically running after Cecilca who was a really fast walker up this narrow rocky Incan path! Luckily we lost Chelsy who is still as annoying today as she was yesterday. Not that I don't like her exactly, it's just she disrupts the group dynamic.

Llama jam!

He's so unimpressed with you right now...

Sun gate ruins

And the amazing view from the sun gate, you can see the windy dirt road we took on the bus to get up, and Macchu Picchu which is the area of un-forested mountain just above the road.

     Then we said goodbye to Cecilia, Tommy, and Chelsy who had an earlier train and then me and Hunter went on another hike to see an old Incan bridge 

The disappointing bridge

The really, really scary path!

    And then it was over. Just like that it was time to go back home, and me and Hunter sadly rode the bus back down. Back in the town we had a few hours to kill so looked around in the markets, the stuff was really cool, but our bartering skills could definitely use some help! I only ever managed to lower the price about five soles, or one U.S. Dollar!

      We had a late train and it was so uncomfortable neither of us could get any sleep! Then the car ride back was even worse, over the bumpy cobblestone streets, with cars honking all around! We fell into bed exhausted when we returned, what an amazing day!

      

Day 6 - 4th of July

Saturday July Fourth

      Happy Independence Day! It's weird to think that no one here even knows that's happening today! It reminds me how far away I am.

      Oh god was it hard to get up at six after staying out so late last night, but there couldn't be more of a motivator than knowing I was going to Macchu Picchu! I got ready and scrambled the last few things together just in time, that is a common trait with me, if it can be done last minute, I'll do it last minute.

       I had booked my trip through an agency that covered everything from my transportation to a tour of Macchu Picchu, and so was picked up by them promptly at eight. Me, Hunter, and Tommy were going in this trip and both of them had left even more to do last minute than me, which never happens to me, and the person who came to pick us up was quite mad at all of us for holding him up. We then rode in a van for one and a half hours, which wouldn't have been that bad if it had just been the three of us, but it wasn't. The lovely Chelsy joined us, and by lovely I mean annoying.

       I mean she was very nice, and a good person but we just didn't get along very well and therefore I found her a little annoying. There was also another a broader view volunteer on the same trip, Cecilia.

One of the many spectacular views from the car ride.

       Then after the hour and a half bus ride we had an hour and a half train ride to a little town near Macchu Picchu where we would stay the night before going up to see the ruins tomorrow. It was also crazy because it was Hunter's first train ride, including Subways! How crazy!

From left to right, me, Hunter, Tommy, Chelsy, and Cecilia drinking hot chocolate at the train station as it was freezing!

          After we arrived at the small town called Auguacalientes, or in English, hot water, named for it's hot springs, we decided to go for a hike to a botanical gardens, however the hike there turned out to be far more interesting than the gardens! First of all we went exploring on some giant rocks in the river that were just gigantic!

Cecilia, Chelsy, and Tommy

Hunter, Tommy, Cecilia

Gorgeous picture of Hunter

So many amazing photos!

    Then we hiked along a little more until we found a butterfly pavilion, which was way less fun than the river rocks and we had to pay! 

This baby just..,hatched?! What is it called when a butterfly comes out of its cocoon?!

      We walked along some train tracks...

Hunter

Tommy, right after we took this picture we saw a sign telling us not to walk on the train track to which Tommy yelled 'I don't want to be part of your system!' Then literally two seconds later we heard a train horn and a train screamed around the corner! After it had gone Tommy said 'Ok I want to be part of your system again!'

       Then we happened to notice a little path on the side of the tracks that lead down to the river, and we thought would go check it out. But we weren't prepared for what we saw.

It is the most beautiful waterfall I've ever seen! The rocks look metallic, and if you look closely you can see two wedged together in the middle, how majestic! Chelsy had kind of wandered off in front of us at this point which was weird.

      Then after all that we finally reached the botanical gardens which were nothing compared to the walk!

At the end of the botanical garden hike

The surrounding mountains, I'm in the Andes!!

      We had to walk back in the dark as since it's winter here the sun sets at like five which is really disorientating coming from summer in the U.S.! Then back to our hostel where we decided to play cards instead of going to check out the Hot Springs because reviews of it on lonely planet said things like, the dirtiest hot springs I've ever been in, if you want to smell like pee go right ahead, and I would get checked at the hospital after going in these waters.

The amazing view from our room!

Playing cards

Day 5 - Sexy Woman

Friday July Third

     I'm starting to feel the lack of sleep, I always seem to be the first one up and the last one to go to sleep. The days are busy, and tiring. Today it felt especially so because I didn't get breakfast at the Kindergarten, and so spent the morning hungry.

      However it was teacher appreciation day today, and the kids gave me the cutest card complete with a drawing of me! How awesome! I didn't really expect anything considering I just arrived and how little I do!

The card and a pen that I was also given!

And the completely accurate drawing of me - especially the grey hair :)

     I'm starting to realize that toddlers are actually more like adults than I give them credit for, we all just want love and attention don't we?

Benyamin with a milk mousy ache! Could he get any more adorable?

   We learnt musical instruments today and I think my ears are still ringing! I say we because I was learning all the names of the instruments just as much as the students! 

The kids learning musical instruments! 

    When I got back home my mother María had cut her finger pretty badly but luckily we have three Med students in the house! If there was ever a house to get hurt in it's my host house! Then Hunter came home and she had burnt her finger pretty badly at the Kindergarten using a hot glue gun, so now they have matching injuries, who knew working at a kindergarten could be so dangerous!

      In the afternoon me and German Caroline went to visit some Incan ruins just outside the city. We couldn't get over the name though, Saqasyhuaman (pronounced sexy woman)! After we got very lost heading to the bus we went up, up, up.

       I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw the ruins! Wow they were just stunning! At first me and Caroline had the place practically to ourselves and it was so cool exploring the narrow passages and the walls with absolutely massive stones! 

The massive stone walls

Our shadows :)

     Me and the sprawling city of Cusco

Caroline actually teaches art back in Germany and is an awesome photographer, and she took some amazing photos!

Caroline taking a photo

A photo Caroline took

Me taking a selfie of Caroline taking a selfie. Selfiception! When I came here, I was coming alone, and I had to put all my trust in the faith that I would meet people, and I wouldn't be alone the whole time, and it paid off! Sometimes the scariest things to do have the best results :)

    The best part about the ruins was the rockslides though, they were these huge natural slides that formed in some of the rock faces around the ruins. They are really slippery and you go really fast! Caroline and I found this out after we landed hard at the bottom of our first slide, ow!

Look how perfect these rock slides are!

    I thought Caroline was pretty shy at first, but today I saw she is actually pretty adventurous. 

Caroline and me in front of the Jesus statue I saw from the Cristo Blanco church. Here's to new friends.

Love love love the llamas here!!! Caroline took this photo too, just presume if a photo looks really good she took it.

Another amazing photo by Caroline. Although the kids look really happy in this photo, we paid them to take their photo, and they pretended to play for our camera. It's a sad reminder of how dehumanizing the tourist industry can be for locals, who will do anything that tourists will pay for. Even kids as young as these siblings know how to get money from us foreigners. I hope by volunteering in the kindergarten here I can help stop this cycle of poverty, and help kids like these have more of a childhood and not have to worry so much about money. Education fights poverty.

     That evening we decided to go salsa dancing again. Since being here I've gotten a close up experience of what a college students life is like, living with three of them. Tonight it was an insight into their drinking. Before we even went Tommy, American Caroline and a volunteer from a different house Colleen decided to do some pre-gaming by playing a drinking game. Caroline quickly became very drunk and Me and Hunter quickly realized that we would be babysitting the older kids. 

      As we walked into the salsa club, the flickering colorful lights filled me with excitement. I eagerly went out on the floor to dance, but sadly found my partner very drunk. Even worse he kept trying to get me to dance with him again for the next hour, how annoying! However soon enough I lost him and my whole night turned around, and became one of the most fun nights I've ever had! I got to try out my newly learnt salsa moves and found myself to be reasonably good at it, how awesome! Then after eleven things got really crazy, the energy rose, the music got louder, and we all had a lot of fun!

       We went home around 1:00, Germany had joined us by this point and so all six of us piled into one taxi, me laying across everyone in the back seat, what a crazy, fun night!

Here we all are outside the salsa place. Me, then German Caroline, Hunter, U.S. Caroline, and Tommy!