Cusco, Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu

Cusco, Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu

I've been away for a couple of days on a vacation, away from my other vacation!

Cusco was allllright.  It's a beautiful place, but adjusting to the altitude and the cold weather drove me nuts!  At night, the temperature drops all the way down to -10 degrees, while during the day, it's around 25-26 degrees.  Our hostal was pretty shitty, with no heat (which might've contributed to how sick i am now, but that's another story). 

We visited a bunch of Incan ruins, starting with the Temple of the Koricancha

Moving onto Sacsayhuaman,

and then Tambomachay to end the day

Day 2, we went on a tour of the Sacred Valley

the Pisac market and Ollantaytambo

View from Ollantaytambo

the view up top from Ollantaytambo

Day 3, we made our way to Aguas Calientes where we spend the day at the hot springs, relaxing before a long day at Machu Picchu in day 4.

Day 4, we woke up at 3:00 am, and lined up at the bus stop to secure a spot to be able to climb up Wayna Picchu.  Only 400 people are allowed to climb up each day, and we wanted to make sure we had a spot.  We arrived at Machu Picchu at 6am, and started the tour right away.  The climb up Wayna Picchu was amazing.  It took us around 45 minutes to make it up the mountain, it was tiring, but when we made it to the top, it was the most amazing feeling! It makes me want climb more mountains very soon! When we made it to the top, we sat off the edge of the mountain for around 1 hour, soaking up the sun and remembering how amazing it feels to look over Machu Picchu and how lucky we are to be in Peru. 

on top of Wayna Picchu, just chilling.

Machu Picchu was a breathtaking, once in a lifetime experience.  I will never forget the amount of effort it took to scale Wayna Picchu, and how close to death we were, every step we took!

On the train back to Cusco from Aguas Calientes, two people from our group got very very sick, and was vomiting the whole train ride back to Cusco (2 hours long).  When we got back to Cusco, our bus wasn't there to pick us up, so we ended up getting into a random van to take us back to Cusco.   The whole idea was super sketchy and we were all scared for our lives the whole 2.5 hours it took us to get back to Cusco.  However, we made it and we're alive.  Halfway through the bus ride back to Cusco, I started getting car sick and nauseous.  I went straight to bed when we went back to our hostal but woke up a couple of times in the middle of the night to vomit.  RP and I basically took turns throwing up all night, and woke up feeling like ass in the morning.  On the flight back to Lima, I realized that I had a really bad fever and was hot and cold every few minutes.  I slept all the way through our flight, but when I got up to de-board our flight, i got light-headed and really hot.  It's safe to say that it was not a pleasant way to end a vacation. 

Now, I'm sitting here after having slept for a few hours when we got back to Lima, on an empty stomach, hoping that tomorrow's flight back home won't be as miserable as today's.  

See you all very soon!  I can't wait to get back to Toronto to have a REAL shower, a REAL bed, to see my friends, family, CT and Elliott.  I also can't wait to get a well deserved pedicure after roughing it for a month in Lima.

Lima, you were real good to me this past month, I'll see you again soon, but for now, hasta luego!

xoxo -m