Machu Picchu... For a while

Hola,

So I don´t know how well you all have been keeping up with the news, but I sure picked the lucky weekend to go to Machu Picchu. The actual hike was overall quite a blast. The first day was biking, but the bike´s weren´t exactly... functional. As in, when I first got my bike and was trying it out, I noticed that it was nearly impossible to pedal. The guide told me my pedals were broken, but that I needn´t worry because it would be mostly downhill. That was, in fact, not the case at all, and my bike stopped working towards the end so I had to ride in the car with the girl who´s pedal just flew off. Not to mention that cars kept coming at every corner. No injuries though :) The next day we hiked about 7 hours to the hot springs in Santa Teresa, and they were BEAUTIFUL. And much needed. The next day was about another 7 hours, some of which was on the actual Inca Trail, until we ended up in Aguas Calientes and spent the night there. I use night loosely because we got up at 2:00 in the morning and hiked about two hours up to Machu Picchu. It was pitch black, and my friends and I relied competely on my headlight (thank you Honan family!), and it was also rainy and freezing, and we had to hike up these incredibly steep stairs. Once we arried, we waited in line (well, not really, because our group was FIRST!) to get tickets to Wynapicchu, which is the mountain you always see in the background of the postcard pictures of Machu Picchu. Only 400 people are allowed on it every morning because the path up is so narrow, so you have to get there really early to get tickets. Once we got our tickets, we climbed up Machu Picchu and it started pouring. We waited for the fog to clear up and then climbed Wynapicchu, which was absolutely beautiful. Then, we happily took the bus to Aguas Calientes and left for Cusco later that afternoon.

Well, not exactly.

As soon as we got to Aguas Calientes, we were informed that we would have to wait a little bit before leaving Aguas Calientes because the train tracks were dangerous from all the rain. Then, we found out that landslides from the rain had completely broken the tracks, and we were stranded because there are absolutely no roads leading out of Aguas Calientes. We waited for about 3 days until the U.S. Embassy and the Peruvian government sent helicopters to evacuate everyone, starting with pregnant people, families with little kids, and the elderly, and then moving down by age group. Finally, on Thursday, (day five) they started taking the 30 and under people so we got our butts in the long line to the helicopters and made it back safely Thursday afternoon. Not going to lie, the helicopter ride was AWESOME. It was about 15 minutes long, and then we arrived at the nearby city of Ollantaytambo where we took an hour and a half busride back to Cusco. Many towns were hit badly from the landslides, and this is definitely going to affect the tourism in Peru. Machu Picchu isn´t going to be open for 2 months.

So, that was my Machu Picchu adventure. I wonder if I´ll ever able to eat Nature Valley Yogurt bars again, because they pretty much made up my meals considering the restaurants only really had meat left (I´m a vegetarian here for kashrut reasons).

Next stop... ARGENTINA!!