I have been waiting yeeeeears to visit Machu Picchu. At the end of Marcus’ two year mission in Peru, his family went to pick him up and they visited Machu Picchu while there. Ever since we’ve been married I’ve heard their stories about it. It’s very remote and difficult to get there and we joked how by the end of this trip we had been on planes, boats, mototaxis, trains, and buses just to get there. We knew we'd have to wake up at 3am to pack up our stuff and get in line by 4am, but I figured we'd be one of the first in line if we did. So imagine our shock as we walk out and the line is a half mile long! We quickly got in line and we felt AWESOME for what we had in store that morning. And then….it started to DOWNPOUR. We quickly bought ponchos and some umbrellas on a whim and we were so glad we did. It was cold, dark, rainy and the buses couldn’t come soon enough.
We were in line for two hours and 20 minutes before we got on a bus and our spirits just plummeted. I honestly didn’t want to get off the bus when we pulled up to Machu Picchu. Marcus pulled me off from my warm cocoon and we got in another line to enter. After we walked in and came around the bend it was BREATHTAKING! We had to just sit and stare for a few minutes as we watched the clouds roll in and out and there was a heavy mist in the air.
After awhile we started the hike up Huayna Picchu. When I saw how tall and steep it was I thought no way would I be able to hike it! Only 400 people out of thousands every day are allowed to hike, and we pre reserved our tickets. As we headed to the top we got this determination to be the first to the top for the day and passed everyone along these small rock stops that were SO steep! I was so nervous about the elevation and being able to hike that long and it pulled us both out of the funk we had earlier from the rain. We both couldn’t believe people come to Machu Picchu without hiking Huayna Picchu! The hike turned out to be both our favorite part and the view from the top was incredible. No picture can do it justice-even though we tried by taking a million! Ha!
After hiking back down our prayers were answered and the rain stopped. We were SO thankful. After getting yelled out by some more officials we started our tour through the ruins. I was laughing so hard at all the people taking pictures of the llamas when there are amazing ruins everywhere around. Too funny. I couldn't get enough of watching the clouds roll in and out and it added this special, almost mysterious, feeling while being there. Everyone kept commenting on how unique of a day it was and that we were fortunate enough to be there.
Our tour ended and we were so nervous we were going to miss our train back to Cusco because there was another TWO hour wait to get down off the mountain, when our guide gave us the best FastPass of our lives and we were able to skip the line que and get right on the next bus. We felt like royalty. We headed back to Aguas Calientes before our train left and both agreed it was the cutest little mountain town we’d ever seen!
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