A lot of stairs and finally Machu Picchu

Friday morning we were up early. We were told to leave the hotel by 4:30am to make sure we would reach Machu Picchu by 6am to meet our guide (Hugo couldn't accompany us our last day). I was a bit panicky when we still hadn't left at 4:45, and a few of us left then, in a hurry, in the dark. It's amazing hiking in the dark, when you can only see the shadows of the mountains and surrounding scenery. We started climbing the stairs at a rockstar pace, and quickly met up with the rest of the group. Turns out we could have slept in an hour extra because we made the whole hike/climb in an hour. Seriously one of the best workouts of my life, and we climbed it like Olympians. NBD. 

It's hard to describe seeing Machu Picchu for the first time in person. Of course I'd seen a million photos before getting there, but the magnitude in person is impresionante. The architecture is incredible, perfect. It's as if every stone was put in a place for a specific reason. After giving us a few moments to take it all in and snap some photos, Elvis sat us down for the history of the Incas and the great fortress. The most interesting thing for me about the history is that no one is EXACTLY sure what the history is. There are several theories about the Incas and what MP was and meant for their culture, but no one is certain. Some of the artifacts that could shed more light on the truth are housed in a private museum in the US started by the man who discovered the complex. The Peruvian government has just started in recent years to fight to get those artifacts back. 

After our tour with Elvis, we exited to have a snack before tackling Wayna Picchu, the huge hill to overlook all of MP. We climbed as a group the steep and at times daunting hill to be rewarded with sweeping views which gave weight to how big MP really is. We chilled up top until dark rain clouds rolled in. Elvis had warned us that rain would make the climb very dangerous, and we immediately and quickly headed down to safer ground. We got so lucky with the weather. It was clear and at times sunny in the morning and we had perfect views of everything. As it rained, we settled in for lunch. 

After lunch I wandered around a bit more before heading back down the hill to Aguas Calientes. Here I give the shout out to the woman at the bottom of the hill who let me use her bathroom and saved me the guaranteed embarrassment that would have been shitting my pants with no clean clothes remaining in the middle of nowhere. 

I headed back to the hostel and rewarded my hard work with a beer. I won't go into details about how my tour company almost ruined the whole experience by mucking up my train ticket back to Cuzco and then tried to tell me it was my fault, but the trip back was anything but smooth. Luckily I got back to a hot shower, and learned a lesson about paying a little more to use more legit tour companies.

It was an epic trip, and I'm glad I ended up on the Jungle Trek with good peeps.

the view at 4:45am

break neck pace

we made it!

look how perfect those stones are aligned

elvis getting a little off track talkin bout the devil

steep climbs hanging on

view from up top

taking it all in

this is the bathroom i was talking about