Machu Picchu!
Trip Start
Feb 23, 2008
1
39
43
Trip End
Jul 04, 2008
Aguas Calientes,
Sacred Valley,
Peru
Monday, June 16, 2008
After the tour we returned to Aguas Caliente and had lunch along the river. Aquas Caliente is a really stupidly designed town. Most of the restaurants are along the train tracks. After lunch we tried to find our hotel. It is a small town so we didn't think it would be so hard. Finally, we had to ask a police officer
on the bus to MP
. When he figured out what hotel we were going to he decided to escort us. It wasn't in the nicest part of town! Actually besides a couple streets and the plaza most of the town is pretty ugly. When we arrived to the hotel we saw all of our luggage sitting in the lobby right by the door, including my mom's purse sitting on top of a coffee table just asking for someone to steal it!The next day we woke up at 4:30am, again, to catch the first bus to M.P. My parents decided to hike up to the Sun Gate to see the sunrise while the rest of us decided to hike Wayna Picchu. Wayna Picchu only allows 400 visitors a day. We were afraid if we hiked the Sun Gate we would not be able to hike Wayna Picchu. So we just waited in line at W.P. until 7am when they let people start hiking. It was switch backs of steep sets of stairs the 1,100 feet. The views were beautiful. You could look over all of Machu Picchu. It seemed like you were so high in the air on this tiny peak! My parents pictures from the Sun Gate were really cool too. Also a view over M.P.
After the hike we had a long lunch in Aquas Caliente. We were able to score 6 free pisco sours and free chips and guacamole. (The restaurant hawkers are constantly offering free stuff to eat there). Then we returned to the hotel only to find out our luggage was not there
machu picchu
. We were weary about leaving it there, but after having a bi-lingual tourist to help us translate we thought our bags were okay. We didn't want them to leave them in the lobby again! So after a mini goose chase to a different hotel with a stressed out manager of our hotel, we finally found our bags. Both Chris and my dad thought they knew the way to the train station, and both were different ways. So we decided to split up and see who finds it first. My mom and dad ended up running in one direction dragging their rolling suitcases, while the 4 of us went another direction. Chris ended up being right! My parents realized they were wrong and decided to take their time getting to the train station to stress us out since they had all the train tickets! It was pretty amusing! The train ride back to Cusco included a really funny alpaca fashion
show given by the waiter and waitress on the train and a strange folk
dance. The folk dancer had a sock mask over his head and was dancing with a
stuffed alpaca.
