Visiting the Lost Island/Jurassic Park

Here it is: the long awaited Machu Picchu post! Or at least it's long awaited for me. Last weekend we went to the very well known Machu Picchu for Saturday and Sunday and let me tell you, it was in-effing-credible. I will be very honest, I enjoyed the views probably more than the ruins, but only because I am an ancient aliens enthusiast and also don't really believe that archaeologists can just 'figure out' what ancient cultures were like by the buildings they had. It's never made sense to me. Anyway, let me recap the weekend.

secret garden WHAATT

So we had to take a train from Ollantaytambo (a place in the Sacred Valley) to Aguas Calientes (the city below the mountain of Machu Picchu). The car ride to Ollanta was looongggg and by that time we were all hungry. Actually, scratch that, we're always hungry. Bottom line, we wanted lunch. We found this really pretty restaurant that I want my future home to look like when I am a grown up with money. The garden outside of it was over a river and reminded me of a fairy tale. We then hopped on the train, which was another long, boring, ride and this time it was bumpy as shit too! It made sleeping pretty much impossible for everyone but ME because I can sleep anywhere. Heh. But I still only slept for a little bit. Otherwise I read. This is really boring, I have no idea why I'm telling you it.

I'm in Aguas Calientes bitch

When we got to Aguas Calientes, it was this quaint little town in the middle of a place that looked like it could either be a.) the Lost island or b.) Jurassic Park or even c.) a mixture of both. I'm gonna go with c. It was the running joke of the weekend. It didn't take long for us to find our hotel, the Killa Inn. It smelled like mold but it was nice enough. A few of my friends and I got the best room. It had a shit ton of windows and overlooked the Urubamba river, which ended up being more annoying than anything because it was rapids that rushed too loud to get a decent amount of sleep. After we settled into our hotel, we wanted to go get drinks because it was only 3 pm, we weren't going to Machu

Picchu til the next day, and we were a bunch of
20 somethings with nothing better to do. We went walking around looking for a bar my friends Mom said had 4 drinks for 20 soles when she was here. Remember, 20 soles = about 8 dollars. We didn't find it, but we DID find a place for 5 drinks for 20 soles AND free chips and guac with every order. Clearly, we were sold. We spent a few hours there and after spending too many soles, we wanted to go to the natural hot springs in Aguas Calientes. If you need the hot springs explained to you, get it together. Anyway, they were just a bunch of different pools that were naturally heated. We changed to our swimmy suits and headed over. It was ok, but the water smelled like a mixture of chicken broth and metal. One good thing is that I saw my host family because they went to Machu Picchu the same weekend! It was good to see them! :]

just entering Machu Picchu NO BIG

After that, we headed back to the hotel, showered, had a dance party, and then went to bed as we had to get up at 5am the next morning. Like I alluded to earlier, the river made all of us wake up every few hours, and at 4:45 a peruvian man came pounding on our doors "waking us up" but it mostly just made me want to murder him because I am a grouch in the morning. We ate breakfast, and then piled onto the bus. After a half hour weaving up the mountain, we finally made it to the Picch. The only bummer is that it was super foggy, but it's a wonder of the world so I got over it...kinda. Actually everyone else was over it, I was the debbie of the group. Sorry, I'm a complainer, working on it.

Like I said; incredible. We went on a tour through out all the ruins and got a little background on the place. It was "discovered" buy Hiram Bingham, but there were already farmers living here so not really. Also, Machu Picchu is not finished. There are places where the stones were clearly not carved thus making it not finished work. Long story short, when the spaniards came the incas were like OSHT and went to Machu Picchu to hide but the spaniards found that as well so then they escaped to another place, I forgot the name though. There are several different places of interest. The first is the sun temple,  on this summer equinox, the sun shines perfectly through the window on the front, in the winter it shines perfectly through the window on the right. KeWl. But seriously, it is. There is also a place called the three window temple I think, and when the sun shines through it it casts a shadow of the Inca Cross which represents the 3 levels of live the Incas believed in. Pretty neat.

sun temple YO

three window temple

climbin wayna

After the tour of regular Machu Picchu, we climbed a mountain. Yep, read it again, WE CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN. This one is called Wayna Picchu or "Young Mountain" to contrast Machu Picchu or  "Old Mountain" It was the single most challenging thing I think I've ever done, but maybe that's because it was so rewarding. We climbed almost vertically for just about an hour to reach the top. Literally the tippy top of the mountain. It was terrifying/mystifying/breathtaking. It's places like that that all the sudden you feel so small and it knocks the breath out of you. I think climbing it was my favorite part. It also had a sick view of Machu Picchu and we got some saweett pics.

at the top bitches!

sweaty AF enjoyin the view

mountaineers

We came back down the mountain and took a rest went to the bathroom etc. and then went to this place called the Inca Bridge. It's not really a bridge but I think it was? It's really narrow and easy to fall and the rock was f*cking HUGE. Fernando, our tour guide, told us a lovely story of a man who came by himself and was taking pictures and walked off the edge. It took three days and a dog search team to find him, but they did. Luckily he only suffered a broken leg and arm. By then it was pouring and I actually couldnt tell if I was drenched in sweat or in rain. We had spent literallllyyyyyy 8 hours at Machu Picchu so we were all excited to go back and eat.

wouldja lookit that!

We changed, ate, then headed to the train where I was excited to tiger snooze, except four incredibly drunk people were in our area as well so that didn't happen. I think one of the girls was famous cause there were paparazzi taking pictures of her. If she is famous its for being either a porn star or a play boy bunny cause her fake boobs bleach blonde hair thing she had going wasn't something a normal person would do.

ALL IN ALL. It was a great weekend in Aguas Calientes, I'm excited to go back next week when my parents get here! They actually get here in THREE days I'm so excited!

I leave you with this: