Well the title says it all...it has been a ROUGH couple of days in Peru. Went to the Inti Raymi Festival on Sunday in Cuzco. This is the annual festival to celebrate the sun. All of the locals hike up a 'hill' (more of a mountain in my book haha) to watch the festival. This is the biggest event of the year and is held at three different locations Kiswarcabcha, Plaza De Armas and Saqsayhuaman. Due to time constraints we watched only the festival in Saqsayhuaman. The ceremonies took place at the winter solstice, when the sun is farthest from the earth. Fearing the lack of sun and ensuing famine, the ancient Incas gathered to honor the sun and plead for his return.
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| View from the descent of Machu Picchu |
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| At the top wohoo! |
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| Walking up the 'hill' with locals to see Inti Raymi |
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| Watching Inti Raymi |
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| Agua Calientes-repairing the washed out train tracks |
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| Inti Raymi festival |
From here my friend Christen and I caught a bus to Ollantaytambo...this is where the fun began. There are two different busses, the local bus and 'rapido' bus. We were relieved to finally find the bus station after walking many blocks with rolling luggage on cobblestone roads. Only problem was that the bus we were so happy to see turned out to be the locals bus which makes frequent stops and has many people standing (I had two people sitting on my lap). The locals refer to these busses as 'sardinas' meaning packed like sardines. This bus took nearly three hours to get to the train station (should take 1.5 hours). We arrived at the train station at 7:03 sprinted to the gate with passports and tickets in hand only to hear the gate attendant say 'you two minutes late, ticket no good.' Needless to say we had to buy another ticket, pay for a hotel in Aguas Calientes that we couldn't stay at and find a new hotel in Ollantaytambo at 8 p.m. The only tickets they could get us were at 4:37 the next morning. We finally arrived in Aguas Calinetes at 6:30 the next morning, checked into our hotel and went to Machu Picchu. The town of Agua Calientes is very interesting. A jungle like mist, with cloud coverage over the mountains in the early morning and late afternoon and beautiful sunshine late morning to afternoon. Although our original plan to see Machu Picchu at sunrise was flawed, it made for a good story. Machu Picchu was very surreal. It is almost as if you could reach out and tough the mountains. This was once the home of Incan leaders until their civilization was wiped out by Spanish invaders. It remained a secret only known to peasants living in the region until Hiram Bingham discovered it, and I am glad he did! It is a special place that should be shared. I am fairly certain that we walked all of the 3,000 steps and the hike was a lot of work. The views made it well worth it though. I was physically exhausted by the end of the day and was very excited to take a hot shower...only problem was that there was no hot water. And...the power went out late afternoon as a big hail storm struck Agua Calientes. Next morning our train left early for Ollantaytambo and we arrived this afternoon. This is my favorite town thus far, primarily for the local feel. As we arrived, kids were just getting out of school. The kids all work really hard afterschool. We passed a little boy about 3 years old washing his clothes in the river. Other kids are helping their parents sell crafts or shoveling dirt on the side of the road. It is really fun having conversations with the children and they get very excited to interact with Americans. We hiked up to the ruins in Ollantaytambo today but were exhausted so decided to only venture half way. The view over the town was incredible. Very early bus ride back to Cuzco tomorrow to catch a plane to Lima and final destination home!!!! I am ready to be back with my amenities including toilet paper in bathrooms and water out of the faucet!!!
