Day 3: Hike Till You Drop

I smiled so much on my trip that my face hurt at the end of the days. The cast of Characters we had along for the ride should get their own sitcom. I love Steph because she isn’t over sensitive and, like me, can be made fun of all day long and laugh along with it instead of getting upset. Steph totally got the bulk of the teasing on the trip. It started with her packing. I told steph she was gonna need a back pack for the hiking. She said she didn’t have one so I arranged for her to borrow a friends in Lima. Steph arrives in Peru with a huge rolly, red, suitcase. She brought more clothes for a two week trip than I did my two year service, and I am not over exaggerating.

I questioned her repeatedly why she brought so much stuff. She brought 3 different winter coats, 5 pairs of jeans (I don’t even own 5 pairs of jeans), zebra print flats and fancy to the knee leather boots. She got nicknamed Paris right off the bat. But she realized that for the day hikes, she didn’t have anything to carry her stuff. She found a white hefty garbage back and figured she’s carry that up the mountain. She went from Paris to Hobo overnight. Everyone made fun of her for carrying a plastic bag and told her it wouldn’t last, but she showed them. The plastic bag ended up working great.

Eric even switched to a plastic bag half way through the trek but it didn’t work out as well as Steph’s and he complained like everyone thought Steph would do.

The third day was a day of all hiking. After a three hour climb 800 meters strait up, we reached the top pf a mountain and an old Inca watch post where from you could see the ruins of Machu Picchu. We had a sack lunch there and enjoyed the amazing view. The Lucchessi brothers kept things interesting by syncing their ipods to the theme of the Indiana Jones movie and running around the Inca ruins. At one point, Ryan put his Nalgene on an altar rock and reenacted the scene from the movie where he takes the idol by switching his Nalgene bottle with a his lunch sack and then mimicking escaping from several booby traps.

After lunch we descended the mountain finally arriving in Hidroelectica where we took a train to Aguas Calientes. Aguas Calientes is the town at the base of Machu Picchu that who’s sole function in this world is to cater to tourists. The hostel we stayed in was far cry from the $1000 a night luxury eco lodge I stayed in with my parents 6 months before, but it was still really nice. Our room was right on top of a violently rushing river and the sound of water was defining, but still really cool.

In Aguas we were given the fanciest meal of our trip and our last meal with Luis. It seemed like a special night. Our group got along really well and everyone bonded during our 3 day adventure. It was really nice to share that night with my friends. We knew that we had the crown Jewel of our trip the next day, Machu Picchu.

We had to wake up at 4:45 to get make to the ruins for sunrise. This was the one night the boys went to bed early. Just like the last time I was in Aguas Calientes, I woke up in the middle of the night sick and spent an hour in the bathroom. Maybe that night was worse than the one that was hot with the mosquitoes. But I don’t know. After I was done in the bathroom I feel right asleep and slept soundly with the sound of rushing water filling our room.