By Dylan:
29 May
29 May
I woke up surprisingly early at our campsite in Tipón, so I took the time to work on my travel journal that I am forever behind on (oops!).
Everyone else eventually woke up, and we drove into Cusco, in search of the overlanders campground that Our Open Road had suggested to us. The place is lovely and if you'd like to meet other travelers/use showers/wifi/do laundry it's a great place. We were so excited to take showers and catch up on some internet, as well as do some work on the car.
Everyone else eventually woke up, and we drove into Cusco, in search of the overlanders campground that Our Open Road had suggested to us. The place is lovely and if you'd like to meet other travelers/use showers/wifi/do laundry it's a great place. We were so excited to take showers and catch up on some internet, as well as do some work on the car.
My dad worked on the muffler and cleaned the spark plugs while Mom worked on our homemade bug screens for all the windows, and our sun shade (which will come in handy!). I got together everyone's stuff we didn't need to send back home and Wells was the mechanical assistant for my dad.
We worked like busy bees in the warm sun, and it was nice to have a day to get things done that had been on our list forever.
We worked like busy bees in the warm sun, and it was nice to have a day to get things done that had been on our list forever.
We met some great overlanders and it was nice to swap stories and maps and check out each others sweet rides (including a sweet GoWesty rebuild that we marveled over).
We had wanted to check out Cusco that day, but we ended up being too busy so we decided to cook a yummy dinner and spend the dark hours of the night contacting friends and chilling out.
30 May
We'd been debating on the Machu Picchu trip for months, but everyone, and I do mean everyone, told us that we just HAD to go. So we packed up Jules, and headed in to town to buy our train tickets.
*We decided not to do the drive to Santa Teresa and 3 hour hike in because we are racing the clock trying to get to Cartagena, Colombia to ship our van.
We bought our tickets for the train to Machu Picchu, leaving from Ollantaytambo because they were the cheapest tickets, and we could easily drive to the closer train station in Jules.
Now it was time to explore Cusco. We walked through the streets, looking at little shops and taking in the large quantity of gringos. We got a nice view over the top of Cusco on a super curvy street that reminded us of Lombard Street in San Francisco.
We ate at this great little restaurant that served delicious set meals with regular and vegetarian options. It was delicious!!!! Wells got this freaky hat, and wore it nonstop for awhile.
Dad wanted to visit a museum called Museo Inca to see a little of the history of the area. Honestly, I was pretty bored by the museum because it felt like I'd already seen a lot of the stuff they had at other museums. I really liked the crazy "alien" skulls that they had as well as the cheesy mummy showcase they had. The best part of the museum was that it was in a giant old mansion and it was cool to think of what they could have had in each room.
At 3:30 we got on the road again, heading to Ollantaytambo to catch our 7:15 pm train. The drive was super beautiful, through scenic mountains and large valleys that made me really excited to see what Machu Picchu would have to offer.
My mom is really into the process for making the adobe bricks that most houses are made of, so we stopped by the side of the road to snap a few pics of them drying.
We made it at a perfect time, not being rushed, and not waiting forever for the train. The conductor let us stand on the front of the train while it was parked at we got some photos. Thanks Peru Rail!
It was crazy to see the difference between the train cars for the visitors and the cars for the locals. We had plush seats and decorated cabins, while they had bench seats (with some standing the entire 1.5 hour trip) and dim lighting; I thought it would have been cool to sit back there and talk to some locals instead of gringos blabbering on, but it'd be a faux pas to not pay the crazy amount for the tourist car and sit with the locals instead when were obviously gringos.
The train ride was in the dark so I took the opportunity or doze off and listen to some music.
Arriving in Machupicchu Pueblo (Formerly Aguas Calientes) was crazy.
I was still groggy from my nap, but we managed to get our bus tickets up to the real Machu Picchu for the morning and arrange to stay with a family that ran a small place, renting out rooms of their home. They were very kind and gave us recommendations for tomorrow's journey as well as walked us to the local almacen (little grocery store) and waited for us while we bought the essentials.
A lady on the train gave me her old Instyle Magazine, so I got to catch up on all the fashion and gossip of the summer. It was great.
I was still groggy from my nap, but we managed to get our bus tickets up to the real Machu Picchu for the morning and arrange to stay with a family that ran a small place, renting out rooms of their home. They were very kind and gave us recommendations for tomorrow's journey as well as walked us to the local almacen (little grocery store) and waited for us while we bought the essentials.
Don't I look cheery.
A lady on the train gave me her old Instyle Magazine, so I got to catch up on all the fashion and gossip of the summer. It was great.
31 May
We woke up at 4:45 am (yikes!) and managed to catch the 5:30 bus. The lines were mad.
The bus was perfect because it started out in the dark, and we got to watch the sunshine start illuminating the mountains surrounding Machupicchu Pueblo. When we got to the actual entrance, the line was even crazier.
There were tour guides calling out telling us "Without a guide they're just rocks!" and "You can't really experience Machu Picchu without a guide.". We opted to do it without a guide because we'd be doing some alternative hikes to see the view from up above.
The first thing we did was find a nice spot to watch the sun rise over the ancient city. The tourists were pouring in slowly, and the sunrise was magnificent.
After the sun had fully risen and we'd taken sufficient photos, we took our first hike to the Inca Bridge. Okay guys, this was the weirdest thing. It was this whole really pretty hike along a cliff through all this flourishing vegetation, but when we got there we were like "What!?!?!". Maybe we needed some background history, but it was a couple of long logs stretched across a stretch of about 8 feet. It was very confusing.
We think that this log bridge is where the Inca Bridge used to be. We paid $15 to see this. Hahahaha!
We met a nice family of 4 from the US that were living in Cusco for the summer. It was nice to talk to some kids doing a similar thing to us and it was fun to compare horror stories and the differences between school in the US and South America.
We parted ways and headed to the hike up Machu Picchu Mountain (It's behind the ruins and not usually shown in photos.). This hike was very difficult, it was 3 hours straight up a steep hill, all steps.
Bring water, and some food!!! I wanted to give up a million times, but I knew it'd be worth it at the top.
At the top, it was just great. There were butterflies everywhere, and you could see a 360° view of all the huge green mountains.
We met a pair of French brothers that are hitchhiking around the world on boats, cars, and trucks and Mpm gave them some of our food and water because they hadn't brought any and looked quite skinny and we all shared stories.
La bajada.
The hike down was significantly easier but all of our legs were shaking so it was wobbly for sure. Wells got a bloody nose from the altitude and we had to stop for him to rest a little so it would stop. It was funny to see all the hikers passing by giving surprised and even a concerned looks.
We then took a nap underneath a boulder because we were so exhausted from the hike. Wells is a super human and never gets tired, so he decided he wanted to do some solo exploring while we rested.
We explored the ruins, sometimes sneakily tagging along behind the tours to listen, and laughing at the way that every tour guide would have a different explanation for 1 object. The coolest part for me was they way that a lot of the buildings that were made of blocks of stone that were ground into rectangles that fit perfectly together. It amazed me that they could make such amazing architectural feats so long ago.
Zonked to no end, we decided to take the bus back instead of the 1 hour walk down more steps. Back in Machupicchu Pueblo, we searched for a local, cheap restaurant... and found the best choice we could have hoped for. A cheap, fast, set menu, and we were sitting on a balcony overlooking a soccer match between the local team and another Perú national league team. It was very interesting and we felt very lucky to see this soccer spectacular.
Everyone was posing with this guy in the blue hat. He must be a famous Peruvian soccer player.
We boarded the train back to Ollantaytambo and rested our tired legs. We slept in the parking lot we'd left Jules in, and dreamed of perfectly fitting bricks.
(Regarding Shrines--this is Cana, BTW--in parts of Perú, and northward, the shrines are all lit up and fancy)
1 June
We were still tired from the last days adventures, but there ain't no rest for the Crosby family so we continued on, driving all day. We didn't do much at all except for drive and listen to The Hunger Games Trilogy on audiobook. We slept at a gas station near the famous Nazca Lines.
