Machu Picchu!

Yesterday we spent our day touring the site of Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was a city built by the Incas in 1490 high up in the Andes of Peru, but they lived in the city for only about 100 years before the civilization fell to the Spaniards. Archeologists only have a few theories of what Machu Picchu actually was, but that does not take away from how impressive it is. It's a sight that many people make as their life-long goal to see, and it certainly was up there on my list. Machu Picchu was a major destination that we put on our list to see during this trip, and it's cool that we finally made it here. We have seen so many amazing things along the way, but there have only been a few of those that we knew about before hand that would be a must-see, of course this being one of them.

We got up super early to get on the first 5:30 a.m. bus up the road to the site from the town below. I awoke with disbelief when the alarm went off to hear rain hitting the hotel roof.. There is a pretty loud river right outside the hotel, so I hoped that's what I was hearing...Nope, it was raining.. The one day when I am finally here, and about to spend the whole day exploring this amazing site-it's raining! It was a bummer of a start but I was hopeful that the rain wouldn't last very long. When we got to the site, the fog was just about the only thing you could see...We started walking through the ruins but not really seeing anything. A few of us slowly walked together, following a path through the ruins but not really being able to take anything in, as the fog made us really disoriented. As it started raining harder, we stumbled upon a few covered huts towards one end of the ruins. We bunked down here for one hour, trying to wait out the rain and fog. It really didn't look good for a while, but since we had gotten to the site so early in the morning, we had time to wait. Finally the rain slowed to a light sprinkle and we had had enough of not exploring. We decided to hike up to the nearby peak of Wayna Picchu in hopes that the weather would start cooperating and we could get great views of Machu Picchu. After a quick but steep hike we got to the top and the clouds parted. The people already up there had been waiting 3 hrs. for the clouds to move, and we timed it perfectly to get sweeping views of the whole city of Machu Picchu. There were even ruins built up on this peak, so we spent about three hours up at the top fooling around and checking out the ruins and views. After that we hiked down and started to explore the rest of the ruins. It was impressive to almost see the whole site appear out of the mysterious fog. Even having been to many ancient ruins now, these sites never get old. I was in continuous awe of the place as we walked through it.

To make the day even more enjoyable, we met a few other people that we toured the site with and had a good time chatting along the way. Our crew consisted of Juri from Amsterdam, Jocelyn and her mom Penny from Alaska, and Alex from Colorado. Adrian and I always enjoy ruins and taking in this old history, and this time it was nice to be around others that shared our awe and amazement of Machu Picchu.

Later that night we met our new friends out to celebrate Christmas Eve. Jocelyn and Penny had gone out of their way and made us sandwiches and bought us wine and beer- so nice of them! We went back to their hotel bar and chatted and had some drinks. In Peru, it seems that Christmas Eve is the big night of celebration. They celebrate by going out into the main square and lighting off firecrackers and fireworks at midnight. We went down amongst the firecracker throwers to join in the festivities, and although there weren't very many of us-we had a great time celebrating Christmas Eve with our new friends.

It is a little tough being away from home on the holidays. I miss seeing family and friends, and just the whole feeling of Christmas at home. For part of our Christmas celebration, we ate at McDonalds! I know, it sounds weird...But it's American, and it is food that tastes familiar and therefore reminds us of home...

Peru-sing through Peru...

I know- so cheesy, but I couldn´t resist :) But, it is actually almost true. Since leaving Mancora earlier in the month I feel like it has been a whirlwind tour of Peru. Maybe that´s just because the bus journeys have gotten longer, and more frequent, as my time winds down. Having a deadline of a flight home is great stimulant to get your ass moving, but at the same time is a frustrating contradiction of the way we have been travelling.

Since leaving the dusty town of Mancora, we stopped at another beach town called Huanchaco. We ended up going there on a whim, because when we arrived in Trujillo in the morning the city didn´t look that cool, and we thought we´d give it a try. We made the right choice! Huanchaco was cute and very well-groomed, very different from many beach towns we have seen. I immediately loved that there was a boardwalk that went all the way down the stretch of the beach. We spent a few lovely days there and even took some time to see some ruins nearby. Who knew that right there was the largest adobe city in the world? Yes, that´s right...A little place called Chan-Chan. I wanted to go check the place out but we really had no idea what was in store for us. We were blown away by how huge the sight was, and that only a very small fraction is even restored. Walking through the restored section was pretty impressive. Giant adobe walls arranged in a maze-like pattern surrounding big open squares and even a pond! Carved into many of the adobe walls were intricate patterns and drawings of animals. It was pretty damn cool...

After enjoying the beach for a while it was then time to get back into the mountains, so from Huanchaco we went to a mountain town called Huaraz. The surrounding towering snow-capped peaks of the Andes really make this town. The main thing to do there is hiking and trekking, so we did a few day hikes on our own. The hike up Lago Churup was difficult and crazy, but beautiful. The final altitude of the lake was about 4400 meters (14, 435ft.), and because we got off trail towards the end of our hike we actually ended up on a peak looking down at the lake. So, technically we were higher then that...The altitude usually makes one pretty breathless, but this time my reaction was a bit different. My legs felt like lead that just couldn´t be persuaded to move, and my chest just felt all heavy. At one point I really thought I was going to pass out. I for sure thought this was a sign that I should turn around, but Adrian´s drive to reach the top and his motivation pushed me on. I fell for the ¨Let´s just hike to that tree and rest...Let´s just hike to that rock and rest¨. In the end I was very glad that he pushed me on, because I did get past it and eventually felt better and reached the top. The whole hike was pretty stunning- I have never done a hike where huge snow-capped rocky peaks are just off in the near distance.

After Huaraz we pushed on to Lima for one day, and then on to Cusco- just a short 22 hour bus ride! The bus ride was not as bad I was expecting, and we arrived in the very high city of Cusco a few days ago (3300 meters). Deciding to get to Machu Picchu and be back in Cusco for Christmas, we decided to move on the next day. Tomorrow we go to the site of Machu Picchu nice and early...I am very excited to see it, so I hope it will be impressive!

Peru!!

So we have made it to country number 11...Oh ya!! It was a strange border crossing for us. The Ecuadorian immigration building was just located on the side of a busy, dusty highway and the bus just dropped us of (we were the only 2 that got off the bus to go through immigration) and pointed us at the building. We quickly got our Ecuadorian exit stamp and then were wondering how we get into Peru, and where do we get our entry stamps? It turns out the Peru immigration building is about 6km away, so we had to take a taxi there! A bit strange-most countries we have been in you just walk from one building to the other and you´re done. So we hopped in a taxi, were taken to the border of Ecuador and dropped off in a market. They just pointed and said over there...It looks as if we are just in the middle of a busy city on market day and there is no immigration office in sight. As we started walking another taxi driver comes to us and says he will take us the 3km to the immigration office and then onto the bus terminal. Alright, I prefer than then walking in the hot sun with all my stuff. At the same time I am thinking how strange this border is...

As we start the ride with taxi number 2 we are talking with the taxi driver about this strange border crossing and how much the taxi ride will cost. Adrian says, don´t worry, we just changed a bit of money at the Ecuadorian border, it will cover what this ride costs. The taxi driver tells us that we the money changers there frequently give fake Peruvian money! We exchanged about $26USD and they gave us a 50 soles bill that looked very real, complete with holograms and watermarks (Adrian even checked when he got the bill!). So Adrian takes it out to show the cabby, and low and behold- it´s fake! Doh! It looked very real, the only way you could tell was that the number 50 on the bill was not an irridescent color. Now we know...Luckily we didn´t change much money and the fake 50 is only worth about $16USD.

We get to the Peruvian immigration and get our entry stamp and are back in the taxi to go to the bus station. Subtracting our counterfeit money from our stash, we realize we have just enough money to get us to Mancora, our destination beach town. Luckily, I had a few soles coins that I had traded with a guy in Montañita for some Colombian pesos that I had leftover...Those coins got us there on the bus! Whew...

We were pretty annoyed about getting some fake money and thought it was a lost cause. But later that night, I was able to buy some drinks at the bar with my fake note. We just picked the most wasted bartender and waited for him to help me. There was no chance this wasted dude was going to examine the bill to see if it was fake :) Good times...