Worst Day of the Trip & Machu Picchu

November 27, 2009

Okay, I've fallen behind again on the blog!! Oops. Been busy loving South America.

So, for me, the worst day of the trip thus far became the day we made our way to Aguas Calientes, to do Machu Picchu.

We got a bus from Cuzco at 9 am to a town, which was supposed to be a 5 or 7 hour bus ride. Two hours into the ride, the bus broke down and we ended up having to sit around for about 3 hours not knowing what was going on. It was fine because we played with lots of little kids, listened to some Canadian guy play guitar, and talked to some locals, but still kind of annoying. I even met a little baby named Melanie! haha

Finally our bus came and it was a never ending bumpy, stopping, backing up, annoying ride. At one point we went to a rest stop and there were locals just peeing everywhere, no shame, and I also walked in on some guy taking a dump in the yucky bathroom..oops.

When we got off, we got a horrendous taxi ride to the next location. The taxi was whipping around cliffs with no barriers...I was so nervous and upset my body temperature kept rising nd I was crying...The girls asked the taxi driver to slow down luckily.

Then we took a small van with some Argentinian guys which was fine. From there, we got dropped off on some train tracks and were told we had to walk on the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, that there were no other options..no taxis or anything. At this point it was dark out. I was not thrilled!

Overall, I was feeling unsafe, cranky and bitchy. It was a long walk...that guy Mark was playing guitar as we walked, which was nice at times, annoying at others..half the time we didnt know if we were even going the right way.

Luckily, we finally arrived in Aguas Calientes and found a hostel.

The next day was Machu Picchu, and luckily I woke up realizing it was a new day. We hiked an hour and a half up to the site, and spent the morning visiting Machu Picchu.

After such an awful day, my reward was this....not so shabby!