And How 'Machu' It Was!

Well, it's been quite an adventurous week - probably the most exciting vacation I've ever been on! There is so much to get through though, so I hope you understand if I let the pictures do the talking :)

This is us at the beginning of our trip. We left Arequipa at 6:00 am on Monday morning, ready to journey to Cusco! We stopped about 3 hours into our trip to take this picture. These are our adventure faces and poses. We were on top of the world - literally (we were about 14,000 feet in elevation!) Nothing could bring us down. Little did we know the twists that were about to intrude on our smooth trip just up the road.

About 2 hours further in our trip, in the small town of Ayaviri (that is apparetly most famous for their mutton...) our trip was stalled. We were driving and as we approached the toll booth to enter the town, we were met by angry Peruvians who were yelling for us to "get back." It was fairly unsettling, but we continued anyways...until we were stopped by police officers who informed us that the mutton town ahead had gone on strike not 2 hours prior. We weren't allowed to go through. This really wouldn't matter, except for the fact that we HAD to pass through Ayaviri to get to Cusco. It's by far the fastest way to get there.

Seriously?!

Luckily, the town of Puno was about 2 hours away, and after a few calls to the travel agency and Julio's boss (our bodyguard), we secured a hotel for the night. We would just have to continue our trip the next day. Bummer!

It turned out to be a good thing - Puno had just gotten finished with striking the day before. And we had already planned to visit Puno. So, as soon as we checked into our hotel, we decided to go to Puno's main attraction - Lake Titicaca. It's the world's highest-elevated-livable lake! What a mouthful...We found someone who had a boat and could drive us out on the lake. It was a man and his son who seemed very nice. We got into the boat, and, to our surprise, the man didn't take the wheel... his son did!

Here's a picture:

He was probably 10. At most. We were fairly freaked out, but we soon got over our fears and Markie, Morgan, Tanya, and I ventured out to the top of the boat. How beautiful it was!

You might be thinking that's it's fairly weird for a lake as highly elevated as this one to have reeds, but that's what makes it so amazing! The people who live on the lake make floating islands out of these reeds and they live on them! Yes - they make islands to live on - - and we were going to see them!! :)

Isn't it amazing!? It was so awesome to be able to be in a boat floating past these marvels! But the boat ride got even better when our driver (yeah, the 10 year old) pulled up to one of the islands and we were able to walk on them! We met the natives of one island and they explained to us how they build the islands. I was surprised to see that they had solar panels and water towers and heaters. I guess they haven't been left out in the race for technology. The best part though, was the fact that we were the only tourists on the lake. We had been able to get into Puno by a fluke.

Absolutely Amazing.

Unfortunately, our time in Puno was cut short when we were informed that there was rumored to be another strike in the town the next morning. If that happened and we were still in the city, we would be stuck. We had to leave our warm beds and flee at 3 am. ** A little tip: if you want to hear the worst Spanish music you've ever heard in your life, just listen to it at 3am. You won't be disappointed. **

The road to Cusco was still closed, so we embarked on an alternate route - one that would ultimately lead us down a dirt road for 4 hours, through many poverty-stricken towns, to a drunk man giving us directions, and through rainforest mountainsides.

But we finally got to Cusco around 4pm. AND avoided the strike in Puno. Strikes have made our lives most miserable the past week. Yup. An 8 hour journey turned into a two day venture in a 12 seater van. Dumb strikers...

As you can see below, we were often squished.

But we kept our happy faces on. After all, we had made it to Machu Picchu! :)

(Actually, that's a bit of an overstatement. We had to drive 1.5 hours to the train station, take a 2 hour train trip, ride the 25 minute bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu only to realize that you had to buy your entrance tickets at the base of the mountain so that put us back another hour as well.) But, after waking up at 5am, we finally got to enter the amazing Machu Picchu ruins...at 1pm.

Like I said, it was an adventure, but we kept our happy faces on:

Machu Picchu was absolutely breathtaking! (not only because it was so high in altitude, but because everything about it was beautiful!) The Incas were so particular in their stonework. It's amazing that it's lasted this long - and how lucky we were that we were actually able to walk within the walls. Here's a few pictures:

Out these windows are spectacular views of the mountains and valleys below. Everything was so densely forested and lush!

Here's a picture from the main floor, looking out towards Manu Picchu (the mountain in the picture). I wish we could've hiked that.

What did I tell you about being high up in altitude? And would you look at all the trees covering the mountains!

Absolutely Spectacular.

We left Machu Picchu around 4 to get back to Cusco. But the fun with Inca ruins didn't stop there!

We went to Sacsayhuaman, (pronounced sexy woman haha) a place where the Incas built not temples like Machu Picchu, but fortifications to ward off invaders. The walls were huge and so were the stones used in building! Of course, since it is now a tourist attraction, there were llamas.

These llamas were racially segregated (just for you Lee).

Below is a picture of the walls in their zig-zag formation, with the city of Cusco behind it.

Fun fact: did you know that Cusco, Peru is the oldest city in Latin America? :)

Sacsawhaman also had caves the Incas used to make quick getaways. We went in one - and I'm surprised we're all smiling after going through! It was so pitch black I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or not; and we had to nearly crawl the entire way through! I'm glad it was a short distance though. (There are longer ones, but they've been closed off because people kept getting lost in them! Scary!)

Sacsayhuaman also had giant natural rock slides that were super fun to go down. It was like a giant natural playground!

Fabulous!

Here's a picture of two little girls at the pisac market we went to on Thursday. I've never seen so many shops in my life! But I bought some pretty fun stuff! :)

That's pretty much all to say for our trip. Nothing bad happened on Friday, and we were able to return to Arequipa safely - in 8 hours. Such an easy trip compared to the rest of the week!

More adventures to come! Everything is so interesting!

Adios!