Fred trying frog soup in the market
Vicuna
On Tuesday we started Spanish class. We booked lessons for ten hours while we were visiting Cusco. We spent the afternoon walking around the main downtown area, taking pictures of the beautiful buildings and browsing for souvenirs. At 3:30 we headed to Spanish. Our teacher was very nice, however she didn't speak any English. This was good in terms of being fully immersed in the language, but it was hard to follow her at times. At one point she held up a cup and started to teach us adjectives. We thought that she telling us the cup was white, small, and smooth. We later found out that she was saying the cup was white, small, and clean. After three hours we were ready for dinner. We headed back to our hostel for dinner and drinks.
On Wednesday we woke up and headed to Machu Picchu. We took a taxi, along with one other girl from our hostel, to a city about 90 minutes from Cusco. After our arrival, we had two hours to explore the small mountain community. From there we took a train for 90 minutes to the city at the base of Machu Picchu called Aguas Calientes. We checked into our hotel and went to explore. We found a nice market and stocked up on food for the next day. We then walked around the town. It was so beautiful. The city was surrounded by mountains. Although it was very touristy, it was magical. We then had dinner, met up with our guide and headed to bed so that we would be ready for our early morning wake up call.
On Thursday we woke up at 4am and headed to the bus line. Luckily, we were in line early so we made the first bus to Machu Picchu at 5:30 am. The bus ride up the mountain took about 20 minutes. The turns were terrifying as we could look right off the side of the mountain. Finally, we made it to the top. We entered into Machu Picchu and were full of anticipation for what we were going to see. In reality all we saw as fog. The fog was so thick that it was hard to see a few feet in front of you. We sat around for a while catching glimpses of Machu Picchu as the fog rolled in and out. At 7am we had a two hour guided tour. As the tour started most of the fog started lifting. To our surprise, our friends Sam and Neil from England (that we had met in Lima) were on our tour! What a small world! Our guide was great. He pointed out lots of things that we wouldn't have seen or known the significance of on our own. There are no signs pointing things out or giving information so a guide is needed to fully experience Machu Picchu. Once the tour was over we had one hour before we were scheduled to climb Waynapicchu, a mountain overlooking all of Machu Picchu. After a 40 minute climb we were at the top. The climb was very hard and would probably be an insurance nightmare if it were anywhere in the States. The path was not always clear, so you sometimes had to guess which direction to go. There were no ropes or barriers and one wrong step would have sent your tumbling off the mountain. At some points the path seemed to be vertical. Although it was hard, the view made it all worthwhile. After exploring the top for about an hour we headed down. Going down the mountain was much more terrifying. When we finally made it down to solid, horizontal ground we were very grateful. We walked around some more and took tons of pictures without the fog. In the afternoon we headed back to the city to catch our train back. Fred was on a train 15 minutes before mine. When we were both off the trains we jumped into a small bus for the 90 minute ride back to Cusco. We once again checked into our hostel and went straight to bed.
Our first view of Machu Picchu. It is a good thing that we woke up at 4am!
The sun was a bit bright.
View from the top of Waynapicchu.
Climbing down. It was horrifying.
On Friday we slept in and walked around the city before having three more hours of Spanish class. After our class, we met up with Sam and Neil for dinner and drinks. After a fun night out, we headed to bed.
On Saturday we woke up early for four more hours of Spanish beginning at 9am. Our lesson went fast and we found them all helpful. I was reminded of what I had learned in high school and Fred was fascinated with learning another new language. We spent the afternoon with Sam and Neil, having lunch and seeing the sites. We even stumbled upon a parade in honor of Day of the Dead (November 1st). We then headed to a market before catching a night bus to Arequipa, Peru at 8pm. The bus was very comfortable and we felt very at ease for the entire ten hour journey. We had plush seats, we were able to watch English movies, we were served dinner and tea and the seats reclined to 160 degrees. Although we didn't sleep too well, the bus was perfect for such a long journey. We are now excited to explore our last large city in Peru before heading to Chile.
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