Cuzco and Machu Picchu

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Still alive, and surviving on fruit and bread as promised. We had an early 3hr flight to Cuzco yesterday morning and made it in by around 7:15AM. The city is over 11,000 ft above sea level and the air is very thin, so we were feeling a little woozy when we arrived. Luckily we got some altitude sickness pills in the farmácia before leaving Lima, which we have been taking and which seem to help. When we arrived I (Holly) fell into an altitude-induced deep sleep nap for a few hours, which was a little crazy because I couldn´t get up! I guess that´s what carbon monoxide poisoning must feel like... Anyway, aside from the nap-coma and a few headaches and dizzy spells, we are fine.

Cuzco is a cute little city that thrives on tourism. There are women and children in traditional dress everywhere toting their llamas, alpacas, puppies, and baby sheep along so that the tourists can take their pictures. Of course they expect some money in return for their smiles, but it´s worth it. The not-so-cute variety try to sell you EVERYTHING as you walk by... taxi service, massage, hats, t-shirts, tourist information, blankets, backpacks, hats, bags, jewelry and even meals. They are pretty annoying. We even saw a t-shirt for sale that says "no gracias" and seriously considered wearing it.

Yesterday afternoon we grabbed lunch at an Irish pub (I know, I know, but we were dying for some real beer!) before taking the¨city tour´which apparently takes place outside the city. We went into one church and one historical site in Cusco, then headed to the country-side to some ruins. I guess you would call them the Incan ´burbs. Then we hit the sack early to catch an early train to Machu Picchu, which is surprisingly lower in altitude than Cuzco, which is good since there is a lot of hiking to do all around it.

We got the 6:50am train and arrived around 10, where we met our guide and had a 2 hour tour of the ruins. Then we had lunch and quickly headed back out to see what we could see on our own. We ran up the mountain to the Sun Gate to see the sun setting over the Incan City (the Mountain is actually Machu Picchu, not the city. They don´t know exactly what the city was called, and the mountain you usually see in photos is Wayna Picchu, because the best views of the city are from the Machu Picchu mountain. Go Figure) Dan was worried that we might miss the last bus back to the town where the hotel is, so we ran up the Incan trail, doing the trip in 30 min instead of the usual 60 minutes that it takes normal people to hike it. It worked out really well actually, because as we got there the huge group of Asian tourists was leaving and we had the place practically to ourselves. A few tripod shots later, we were able to head down and take our time snapping photos of gigantic locusts and whatnot with plenty of time to catch the bus.

Tomorrow we are heading back to climb Wayna Picchu in the early AM to see the sunrise. They limit the number of people who can go up there daily, so it will be another early morning. We will have a 20 hr journey on Saturday going home to sleep, so I´m not that worried. This is the home stretch!! See you all soon.

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Photos

Quechua woman and alpaca
Picture - one sol