Dec 22nd
Cross that off my bucket list! It’s official, I can now say that I’ve seen four of the seven wonders of the world! Wahoo! The day started brutally early at 4am. By 4:30am we were off and hiking. Little did I realized when we started hiking that we would only be hiking for about 500 feet until we reached the gate which blocks the entrance to Machu Picchu. It was still pitch black as we started our less than five-minute hike to the gate. We sat at the entrance pleased that we would be among the first through the gate, and waited for nearly an hour. During this time it went from pitch black to light outside, although we were all exhausted. When the gates opened it became clear that this was going to be an interesting hike, we had 500 people behind us who were all racing to be the first to enter Machu Picchu. This part of the hike was supposed to take about three hours, but our group did it in under two. We literally sprinted the whole way. I fell behind the group a few times because the rocks were slippery and wet and I almost went tumbling down the mountain several times, which scared the life out of me. At points of the hike there were “monkey stairs” meaning that you actually needed to use both your hands and feet to crawl up because the steps were so narrow you shoe wouldn’t fit even half way on the step- it really seemed more like rock climbing to me. We made it to Machu Picchu at around 8am and took tons of the typical touristy pictures, which I loved. It was really nice, even though we almost killed ourselves to be there first, we got some great pictures without tons of tourists in the background.
Mario went ahead and grabbed tickets for Wayna Picchu (“Young Mountain”) which is the mountain behind Machu Picchu. Several people in my group really wanted to hike this mountain to get beautiful pictures of Machu Picchu from above. I was exhausted, hungry and dehydrated but I didn’t want to be the only one who didn’t hike it so I decided to go with the flow. Plus I felt like I had come so far why stop now and regret it later? There are only ___ tickets to Wayna Picchu given out per day and Mario grabbed one for everyone on our hike. Our tickets allowed us to start hiking anytime after 10:30am so we still had some time to kill. Mario led us on a guided tour throughout Machu Picchu. I can’t even believe the Incas, they seem like genesis’s. At 10:30am we started off for our hike on what I later heard (not sure if its 100 factual, but I would believe it) is the most dangerous mountain in South America. That being said the hike seemed like an hour straight uphill. It was more rock climbing than normal hiking, much of the hike had ropes to hold on to. I was out of water before the reached the top and had lost the group. By the time I finally reached the top the group was getting ready to go down. I caught my breath and took some beautiful pictures.
I usually am not afraid of heights (I mean I did jump out of a plane after all) but the hike down was terrifying. We still hadn’t eaten anything at this point and I wasn’t feeling well. My body was shaky and deprived of food and water. The group was all supposed to be meeting in town at 1pm for lunch and to gather to head back to Cusco so I felt rushed and pressed for time. I hiked and hiked and all of a sudden I started to feel like I was in a very unfamiliar place. I continued to walk a bit more and luckily found Sabio, one of the Canadians in our group who wasn’t part of the Canadian Army. Unsure what to do we decided to continue down the mountain a bit more, thinking that at least we were going the right direction and hopefully it would come out at the same place. At this point we hiked about fifteen minutes down to realize that we weren’t passing any tourists and that the path was getting more and more sketchy. We decided that we needed to head back up and find the path that we needed to be on. I didn’t know how I was going to make it. Thank god I had Sabio with me because I was at my breaking point. I felt so sick and was miserable. Luckily Sabio set the pace and we somehow make it together. We found the poorly marked path after we hiked for about half an hour. We knew that we were really late at this point. Our friends were waiting at the bottom for us, which was really sweet of them. I bought a bottle of water and felt much better even though I was holding back tears because I felt so horrible. I was relieved when we got to the restaurant called “Mother Earth” and met up with Mario and the rest of the group. We ordered food and relaxed. It was wonderful to be in a real restaurant and know that roughing it was over. We boarded the train for the hour and a half ride towards Cusco. Then we boarded a bus for another hour ride. By the time we made it back to the hotel in Cusco it was 6pm. It took a little while to reassign everyone rooms and get our bags out of storage. I was happy to have a hot shower and nice queen sized bed all to myself. I fully enjoyed getting clean and having Internet access. I called home and let the ones I love know that I survived the hike and I loved it. At 8pm our group met for a farewell dinner. We went to a nice restaurant that Mario recommended and all enjoyed feeling pampered. After we danced the night away at many of the local bars and clubs. Many of the places offered 1 free drink so we jumped around from place to place, checking out the scene and spending next to no money. I had a blast dancing the night away. It was a perfect ending to a fun trip with new friends.
Bye for now.
Love,
Katie
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