I woke up on time the next morning at 3:45am so I could meet my friends outside. I sat down to breakfast with some other motivated hostel stayers and chatted for a while. I figured that a group of three college girls and a guy would not actually be ready at exactly 4:15am so I waltzed out at around 4:18am but they had already left...they meant business. I made my way down to the bus station. The line to board the buses was already about 40 people long at 4:20am. I saw my friends in line for the buses, but I still had to buy my ticket so I went over to the other line. I was about 10th in line for bus tickets. I waited, waited, and waited.
I watched the line for the buses get longer and longer, and around 4:45am (15 minutes before bus tickets went on sale) I estimated about 200 people in line. I felt so powerless! If I had been able to buy my ticket the night before I would be in great shape, about 50th in line, but when the tickets went on sale at 5:00am, I knew there were at least 300 people in line, and there was no hope of me being able to do the climb.
Once tickets went on sale, a bunch of people started squeezing in the line in front of me with their "friends" that were "holding their spot". I was getting frustrated. Then a scalper came around selling one-way tickets for exactly half the price so I took the opportunity, bought the ticket from him, and made my way over to the boarding line.
I felt really bad about myself, but I had to do something because I wouldn't have made the cut to do the hike. The line was on the sidewalk next to some little stores. I entered a store, bought a little cookie, took about 10 minutes to eat it at a little table, and morphed into the line of people waiting in front of the store, surpassing about 200 people in the process.
The whole time I was thinking of the VMI values "will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do" (shout out to Fr. Butera, Jake) and realized I was violating most of those values...but tried to calm my conscience with my new slogan "You gotta do whatchu gotta do to do Machu Picchu".
Needless to say I made the cut for the first 200 people to climb at 7am (number 138 i think). I met my crew, and started our hike up to the lookout at 7am. It wasn't easy, but compared to the Torres del Paine hike we did earlier in the semester, it was a piece of cake.
After about an hour hike (almost straight up) we made it to the top with a great view of the ruins. There were also some ruins at the top of this lookout as well. We spent a lot of time up there, enjoying the fruits of our early rising/hiking. Once again, I will not even try to describe it with words, go there yourself!
Our little group split up into two. Ruth and Katie did not want to do extra hiking on this mountain, but Brett, Amanda, and I wanted to check out the "gran caverna" about an hour away. We set off on the hike after a little snack on the peak. It was really cool taking the Incan stairways and imagining the runners taking the same path (without the safety tourist handrails).
We arrived at the not-so-gran caverna, but the hike was fun anyway. We made our way back another 2 hours back to the ruins. We got back around 1pm (when I normally wake up) so we still had a lot of daylight left. We took a little break in the shade before we set off for another lookout. Llamas crowded the paths (Brett was pretty scared of them and made me go first) but they couldn't care less about us tourists as they munched on their grass.
I had a real nice day with my new acquaintances and we went back into town after a VERY full day of hiking everything Machu Picchu had to offer. I went to the bus station to "bathe" myself in their sinks, and met everyone for dinner. We went to a cheap place since we were all counting coins at this point. I got a soup with chicken and potatoes, a drink, and an entree of a lo mein type chicken dish...all for $2.50...viva Peru!
I relaxed on the train ride back to Cuzco, and we were all pretty sleepy when we got a cab back into center city, but I couldn't relax yet because I had no idea where my hostel was. I walked my friends over to their hostel, then started asking around for my hostel "Pariwana". I had to repeatedly clarify "no no no...I am looking for Pariwana, with a P". One lady said she knew where it was, told me to "go three blocks over, then one block to the right (pointing left)". Spanish is hard enough for me without people mixing up their directions!
On my way over I saw two young men (drunk). I kept my eye on them. There were a few wild dogs playing by a large fountain, and the guy walked over to the dogs, they started whimpering at the sight of him coming. He came up to one, and kicked it as hard as he could in the belly. The dog let out a scream and ran away, all his friends by his side. The group of police stood by the corner nonchalantly and said nothing. The culture is much different down here.
I decided against confronting the guys, not afraid of them but of Peruvian jail. I asked a few more people until finally I found my hostel. After hiking all day, and being awake for almost 24 hours straight, I passed out in my nice hostel bed!
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