Homeless Hobos, July 2

Our alarms went off at 3:30 am. Time to get up. We snoozed them until around 3:50 and finally got up and brushed our teeth and packed our bags. We made it to the bus station at 4:15 or so and waited in a huge line full of people trying to get to Machupicchu bright and early. The buses didn’t leave until 5:30 am so we sat and waited in the cold (and still not dried hair) until we finally left. We arrived to Machupicchu at 6 and it was stressful-there were people everywhere and no one was being clear about where we needed to go. We had planned the day before to get to Machupicchu, take pictures, come out of the park to meet our tour guide for 7:45 am and then we needed to get in line for a 10 am hike to Waynapicchu. Well, of course things did not go as planned. We got there and the only available time to go on the hike was at 7 am so we got our papers stamped {there are only 400 people allowed up to Waynapicchu a day}, and were on our way. We finally figured out our way there with these two Spanish men and waited for an hour until it was 7 or so. Rach and I finally got in at 7:45 and were on our way to hiking a 2750 m. mountain! I pretty much almost died 70 times but luckily Rachel was very patient with me. There were so many stairs I couldn’t count-it was beautiful! After an hour or so we finally made it to the top with our 15 pound backpacks on our back. It was raining off and on the whole time. I had two pairs of socks and pants on plus rain boots plus 3 shirts and two jackets and gloves and a beanie. It was so cold. About halfway up though I got really hot and had to take some shirts off. The view from the top was gorgeous. We were in the middle of clouds! It was seriously such an amazing experience. We were able to hike and look around up there and take more pictures. Finally we came back down-let me tell you-IT WAS SCARY. It was wet and slippery and the steps are all different shapes and sizes. We were lucky we didn’t die haha. Apparently they are closing this hike down in the future and it is going to be a more private hike. Anyways, we got down from the mountain where our legs felt like jelly and I think I pulled my hip flexor. We both have been sick too so it was not very good for our health. After the hike we had to hike through Machupicchu to get back out in front to meet our tour guide. It took forever and I honestly don’t think I could climb anymore stairs. Rach felt the same way and actually felt like she was going to throw up-conveniently they charge 1 sol to use the bathroom so she was unable to throw up haha. We decided that between the two of us we had enough pictures of Machupicchu so we found our tour guide and let her know we wouldn’t be coming. She was okay with that so we waited in line for the buses and got back to town around 12. Conveniently we were homeless since check out time was 9 am for our hostal so we went back to that restaurant where the fire and good food was and paid for another tasty meal. We seriously tried to sit in there for as long as we could-we couldn’t stop laughing at the fact that we were hobos. We finally left the restaurant around 2:15 or so and went and sat in the center of town on a park bench. We sat there for 3 hours or so just people watching and playing games. Surprisingly, being homeless was kind of fun. We even had a random little Peruvian girl walk up to us and take a picture of us like we are famous. Rach and I are considering charging money like the little old Peruvian women with llamas do. Apparently we also missed seeing Jim Carrey by like an hour the day before. He went to Toto’s restaurant for some coffee around 10:30 and we got there right around noon. Some kid that is in a band that plays at the restaurant came and talked to us out on our bench for a while. He said Shakira is coming to Machupicchu on the 7^th. Crazy huh? We were at the same place at the same time as a celebrity haha. Anyways, after being homeless for a few hours we got back on our train and headed back to Ollantaytambo. We then got in these little vans and drove back to Cusco. Luckily I was sleeping most the time because I woke up to a girl puking out the window, which in return made me carsick. It was awesome. We were so glad to be back home in our warm beds for the night!