Machu Picchu!

We stayed in a hostel in Aguas Calientes on Saturday night, but only slept for about 5 hours. We woke up at 3:30 in the morning and started walking to the first check point of Machu Picchu, about a 20 minute walk downhill from our hostel. When they opened the gates at 4 am and checked our tickets and passports, it was allll uphill. Machu Picchu is 1000 meters lower than Cusco, so it wasn't as horrible as it could have been, but it was very hard hiking up constant stairs for an hour and a half on the side of a mountain at 2400 meters about sea level in the dark on a half night of sleep! Seeing it finally get light out was worth the walk - we had been hiking up across from this huge beautiful mountain and when we could finally see it peek out from the darkness it was unreal. After finally getting to the real entrance of Machu Picchu around 5:45 am, we had to wait a little bit to get in. The reason we woke up so early was to sign up for Wayna Picchu, a second mountain (that is a very very steep and scary climb) that only 400 people get to climb up every day. After our 2 hour tour of Machu Picchu starting at 6:30 am, I was exhausted and didn't want to go to Wayna Picchu anymore! I don't know if it was my sore legs, breathlessness, or just shear fear of heights, but I didn't have the urge to walk up another mountain for an hour. We took a ton of pictures and just explored all around Machu Picchu, so here are a sample of the photos!

Kalli, me, Kris, Drew - after hiking up

Alex, our tour guide

It was really foggy in the morning, but luckily cleared up!

We have to wear the sunglasses or Drew squints really bad...

...like this

Agricultural terraces

Classic view

Here I am!!

Drew and I :)

Had to bring a bit of Madison to Machu!

One of the alpacas we were hanging out with while taking a break

This one was also taking a break

We only stayed at Machu Picchu until noon because we were soo exhausted from getting up at 3:30 in the morning and hiking around - plus the only food they sell there is super super expensive and we were very hungry! We took a 20 minute bus back down to Aguas Calientes and had a nice lunch before relaxing a bit at our hostel. Then I got my first massage ever! It was only $10 for a half an hour full body massage and oh did I love it. Too bad I'll never find a deal like that in the states! At night it was the 2 hour train ride to Ollantaytambo, then the 2 hour bus ride to Cusco, then a very good night of sleep. In the morning we flew back to Lima for a full week of Lima adventures... which I'll write about in the next update :)