Wherever You Go, Go With All Your Heart: Machu Picchu, Peru

We got a very early start today because we had to make it to the train station to get to Machu Picchu. This is the day everyone has been waiting for. I was so excited I could hardly sleep. We got on the “tourist" train and it was very nice inside. We learned that this was the only way to get to the town just under Machu Picchu. There was also another train that looked a lot less nice and very crowded which we learned was for locals only. It must have been way cheaper since our ticket cost $56 one way! It was completely worth it though.. not to mention this train was taking us to one of the 7 wonders of the world! The view of the surrounding mountains, rivers, and snow capped mountains was incredible! They served us snacks and coca tea on the way there and back.

The forecast predicted lots of rain all week so we were crossing our fingers we would get to the site before that started. Since we have been staying in smaller towns I was especially shocked to see the amount of tourists here especially during the off season or rainy season. There were thousands and thousands of people here and there was a good chance it was going to start raining while we were there. We meandered around and got a little bit of a tour from our guide. Being born and raised in Cusco, He has a lot of different theories about Peruvuan history and most of them are controversial to what is in the history books so it’s always interesting to hear his take on things especially with something in history that is this big. We hiked up to a mirador and could hardly breathe once we got to the top because of the altitude.

I tried a yoga pose on top which i had just learned from my yoga instructor back home before this trip. When i did this everyone around was staring at me and very scared that I was about to fall over. I knew I was fine because i learned this move from the best and knew most of my weight was behind me so i wouldn’t fall over the edge of the terrace. It literally started raining as soon as we took the bus back down to the town with the train station. We were so happy about this!!

Once we got back down to the town with the train station we looked around for somewhere to eat lunch. We saw a restaurant with a 3 x 1 happy hour and knew we wanted to go there. Then as we kept walking we saw most restaurants actually has 4 x 1 happy hour so we stopped in one of these. Suzy and i shared some carne tacos and our friends had and Al Pacca empanada. We tried some of her Al Pacca and realized this was the same exact meat in our tacos. It was surprisingly very tasty and had a chewy texture. We got 2 rounds of 4 x 1 (Pisco Sour) with the 2 others we were with and watched tourists outside of our window make fools of themselves as they tried to take pictures in the rain. Machu Picchu was everything I thought it would be... I can't believe I finally experienced it.

All aboard the tourist train!

View from the train.. I felt like I was on the Hogwarts Express

The village just below the entrance

Suzy and I trying to master the selfie stick

the group

Edgard was our amazing tour guide for the trip. His 5th daughter was supposed to be delivered on this day, but she was late thankfully and now he is back with his family.