Machu Picchu

Up at 4:15 was painful. Don't get us wrong, everyone was pumped about Machu Picchu, but we were hurting. At 5:30, after final packing and a breakfast of pancakes, we walked out to a bus stop just outside of our campsite to catch the very first tourist bus to up to the site. We were all struggling in our own way. The guys were still slightly drunk and Jessica and Kelly had somehow contracted some stomach issues (we think they somehow ingested some unboiled water) and so were running to the bathroom every 5 minutes.

Despite our issues, we arrived at Machu Picchu about 25 minutes later (lots of switchbacks up the mountain). Before the throngs of tourists arrived, Erick gave us a 2 hour tour of some of the more notable structures at the site. The Incans worshipped the Sun and also the mountains, condors and other nature elements so there were several temples and areas that were devoted to their worship. Kelly's favorite was the Sun temple, a tall circular structure near the center of the site. The way that the Incan's chiseled and fit the massive white granite stones together so perfectly was amazing. After the tour, Erick pulled us aside in one of the buildings and popped a bottle of champagne (clearly a pattern of celebrating with alcohol had developed at this point) and thanked us for being a great "family." We, of course, thanked him too (including with a gift of a new bottle of his favorite Peruvian rum), and before we knew it he was off, heading for a train back to Cusco.

Although we all were very sad and a bit lost without our leader, we continued exploring Macchu Picchu on our own. The day was beautiful and clear and we spent a significant amount of time resting and napping on one of the countless agricultural terraces on the site. At around 1:30 Kelly's stomach could take no more. We said goodbye to Macchu Picchu and caught one of the tourist buses back down to Aguas Calientes. There we met back up with Clark, Jessica, JP, Claudia and Michele for pizza at Pache Mama, a local restaurant, before Clark, Jessica and the two of us boarded the train back to Cusco at 5:00. The train ride was long and slow and really quite painful after our long day. At around 9:30 pm we arrived back in Cusco. Our regular taxi driver, O'Braun (phonetic) picked us up and carried our tired, mosquito-bitten bodies back to Ninos Hotel.

That night's sleep was like a coma. We slept 12 full hours under three cozy layers of heavy Peruvian wool blankets. We had officially survived the Inca Trail. It will never be forgotten!