Thursday, December 25, 2008

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...

1 comment:

Erik and Talor said...

Hey guys! How are you, glad you made it to machu picchu, but too bad about the rain. photos are amazing! how were the holidays? are you back home now? We're beginning our planning for the leap to SE Asia...come join us!
Happy new year and happy trails.
Erik.