Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 This one time when I went to Machu Picchu…

Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 This one time when I went to Machu Picchu…

We woke up at 5 am, got dressed and headed to our breakfast of coffee for me, coca tea for the rest, bread and jam. Then we headed to the bus to ride to Machu Picchu. On the bus ride there the battery on my camera died. Of course.
After the crazy ride up the mountain with some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen in my life, we met up with our tour group. Luckily we got in a Spanish speaking only group, with our friends from Wash U!! The tour started off with a general explanation of Machu Picchu, most of which is speculation as opposed to proven facts. Our tour guide used Chris as a “map” to show locations and apparently Cusco is located a few inches above his manhood, which she eagerly pointed out, full palm. Only a picture does it justice:

Anyway, we got a good laugh. Then we continued the tour by visiting the most important areas of Machu Picchu. The agricultural area with the terraces, then the entrance doorway, then the Religious sector including the Temple of the Three Windows, the Temple of the Sun, and the famous sun dial used to measure and determine the calendar year with almost exact precision.
[Funny side story: it was the only sun dial un destroyed by the Spanish Conquistadors (only b/c they never found Machu Picchu), It was in near perfect condition until about 5 years ago when a Peruvian beer company Cusqueña was filming a commercial on Machu Picchu and a crane fell on the sun dial, breaking off a chunk. All in the name of selling more beer.]
During this part of the tour I randomly met 3 KU students, all from Johnson County, Kansas. One is a now a missionary in South America and the other two were Young Life leaders. They knew a friend of mine from High School. When we figured this out, Natalie about barfed b/c she was so sick of hearing about people from Missouri! After the religious section we crossed to the other side of the plaza to the residential section. There they have the temple of the condor and also a room for star gazing/analyzing/research. I’m sure we saw more, but I can’t remember it all! The tour ended around 10 am and a when we asked a random man to take a group picture, I found out the man was from New Orleans and grew up down the street from Tulane! Even crazier, he graduated from Louisiana University, which later changed its name to University of Louisiana Lafayette, where I went to school after the hurricane semester! Small stinking world up there on Machu Picchu.
After the tour we took a quick bathroom break then headed over to climb Wena Picchu, the mountain on the far side of Machu Picchu. The tour books tell you to hold about 1-2 hours to climb but that the fit can do it in about 25 minutes. Of course Nick and Chris wanted to be “most fit” and of course, I couldn’t let to stupid boys beat me up a mountain, so we left Natalie with our Wash U friends and the three of us about sprinted up the mountain. We would have made it in 25 minutes (dead, but we would have made it), but we ran into some traffic on the way and couldn’t pass a group of old people. But we still made it in about 30 minutes. We climbed all the way to the tip top where a bunch of huge rocks are places precariously for people to sit, take pictures and recover from the climb. Amazingly my battery had enough juice for me to steal a couple shots from the top down.
We ate lunch on Wena Picchu with everyone (Natalie and our Wash U friends) and around 1 pm headed back down. Since we’d rushed up the first time we went down slow to really soak in the incredible view. Our friends had to leave to catch the train back to Cusco, so we said goodbye to them. Then Natalie had the idea that each of us takes about an hour of alone time somewhere on Machu Picchu. So I headed off trying to find a secluded place to pray and think and I ended up climbing the other mountain trail for about 15 minutes, which got me about half way up. I decided to stop since I was alone and there was no one else on the trail. I found a rock in the sun and sat down to say a rosary. After the rosary I spent time just thinking, praying and desperately trying to take in all the beauty around me. I felt and overwhelming sense of peace and I left knowing that I was going to be alright. I honestly believe that amidst the beauty of the nature and the human creation surrounding me, God was telling me that no matter what happens, I am going to be fine. I may not expect it, I may not understand it, but I’ll be alright.
With this renewed sense of peace and contentment, I begrudgingly (I know, ironic right?) headed back down the mountain to meet back up with my friends. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Machu Picchu, then we found a ledge looking over the valley to sit and laugh at each other. At one point a herd of llamas walked by, bringing with them a lovely stench and tons of tiny, merciless bugs that attacked any bare skin. The rest of the trip we were covered in ridiculous itchy bug bites on our legs and arms.
Around 5 pm we decided to head back before the sun set. Instead of taking the bus back down we decided to walk. It ended up being a long, steep walk and by the time we got back to Cusco, we were exhausted. For some reason, when Nick and I got to the bottom of the long hill that led to our hostel, he decided that he had too much energy left over and challenged me to run up the hill with him. So for some crazy reason, Nick and I sped up the hill, a good 3 minute run. When we got there, I sat down and felt like I was going to die b/c of the lack of oxygen (and the beign out of shape thing). Back at the hostel we showered then walked across the street to one of the thousands of restaurants in Aguas Calientes. We were tired and hungry and besides the fact that there was no one else in the restaurant, it looked good enough. We had a great dinner and drinks to celebrate our successful trip to Machu Picchu and after dinner I bought a deck of cards for us to play. We stayed up till 11 pm (which is incredibly late considering we’d woken up at 5 am and how much we’d done that day!) then packed up our stuff and crashed in bed.