Peru, day 15 (Sept 23)

This was the last day of our trek. We were going to cross over the Urubamba River in this cable car, drive about 20 minutes to the trail into Aguas Calientes and then hike for about 3-4 hours. Is was so nice and warm down in the valley after the mountains. We woke up really early to try and be first in line for the cable car. Everyone coming from this direction HAS to cross over the river this way, including all our luggage. The cicadas were already singing, even early in the morning. They were so loud the previous evening that you had to cover your ears!!! It was crazy loud. They started up in the morning again...and then we managed to catch one to look at. And here it is:

He was a big sucker! They're pretty amazing. We packed our lunch, since we were going to be walking during lunch, then headed down to the river. The cable car is quite a bit above the river, and is really old. Creaking and swaying...it looked quite precarious. We came over the ridge and this is what you see:

Then you look down and see two crosses at the bottom of the ravine. Great! Some locals were crossing with groceries and other staples before us.

We were really lucky. Just as we were heading towards the cable car another HUGE group of hikers was coming down behind us. There were about 40 people in that group, and we knew that it would be along wait if we got behind them. We literally ran to get there ahead of them. Here we are waiting in line for our turn on the cable car.

Here's mom and I crossing.

And closer....

We all finally made it across. We then had to sit around and wait for our truck. Finally it arrived, we all piled in and drove for the Peruvian 20 minutes...which really means about 40 minutes, to where we started our hike for the day. We started at the point where the train from Cuzco arrives in the valley. We would be following the train tracks into Aguas Calientes. There are evidently no roads into town, just the train or walking. Here we are starting out. Can you see the sign I'm pointing to? It says "Last Chance EXIT"

We walked for about 40 minutes then mom looked up and spotted Machu Picchu! There it is, up behind me and mom.

The hike was long and very hot. There were also quite a few of those stupid nasty flies out biting us. On our lunch break we decided to take pictures of our bites. Here is my lower leg.
After stopping briefly for lunch we walked on and on and on and on and on and on!!! Eventually the Cuzco train came up behind us. We stopped to wave at them. The Urubamba River was to our right, and we saw some beautiful sights. There were these huge white boulders in the river, that had been sculpted by the water to look like these amazing statues.
Here we are, about 3 miles from Aguas Calientes. By this time we were really all feeling it. We were ready to be done. That's me and Kim sitting down, Toni on the right, and Anne on the left. Waiting for the rest to catch up...

We finally arrived in Aguas Calientes. I gotta tell ya, when we first glimpsed the town down the valley we almost cried. It still seemed so far away, but we eventually got there. The first thing we did, before we even checked into our hotel, was to go to a restaurant and have a beer. Man, I'm not sure a beer has EVER tasted so good!!!! :) But we all really really stank, so we checked into our hotel and all showered. Man, that felt amazing too. This is a view from our hotel room up towards the town center. Machu Picchu is on top of the mountain that you can see on the right. Our hotel was literally RIGHT below Machu Picchu. It was a beautiful town, and such a great feeling to be there.

Here's another pic of my leg showing some more of my bites. This may look bad, but it doesn't look as bad as it really was! My leg was on fire! It was hot and tight both to touch and the way it felt to me. It actually hurt. I think I had a mild fever because of the bites, like what happens if you have too many mosquito bites. Man, it hurt!

After spending some time wandering around town, we all had a nice dinner together. After, mom and I spent some more time wandering around looking at the town at night. We also stopped in at an Internet cafe to let everyone know we were alive and kicking.

But it was an early night, since we were all totally bushed and we needed to get up really early to get up to Machu Picchu. There are so many people that go there every day that you have to buy your bus ticket up beforehand. We purchased tickets for the first round of buses at 5:30-ish. So we were all off to bed. I don't sleep well, but I slept really well in Peru, especially this night!

'Cause tomorrow was Machu Picchu...the whole reason we'd come so far. I was really excited!