We finally made it to Cusco around midday, after much confusion about taxis and hostels we finally settled into another Loki hostel. (we first went to this brokedown hospedaje with doors that locked behind us, locking all our stuff in the room. The key didn´t work, so we had to climb through the window. We got our stuff and left.) This Loki is set in a refurbished colonial compound with three sunny courtyards.
We perused the town for a day, took a city tour of the surrounding ruins. Saqsaywaman (say it out loud) was reaaaaallly amazing and the sheer size of the stones boggle the mind. The next day, we got all our tickets for our trip to Machu Picchu. That was quite the money hole, I must say. Tickets for the bus to the train station, tickets for the train, hostel reservations, park tickets, all insanely overpriced because of the tourist influx. But we finally made it up to Aguas Caliente, a small touristy town nestled in the jungle valley below MP. There´s not a lot here besides backpacker hostels and pizza places (complete with bossy hostess shoving a menu in your face), but the setting is undeniably beautiful. We only stayed one night and woke up around 4 in the morning in order to hike up the hill to the ruins. I nearly had a panic attack in the morning when I couldn´t find my ticket. I was SURE I put it in the pages of the guidebook, but upon flipping through it in the morning it seemed to have disappeared. Upon the 5th shakedown of the book, it finally came fluttering gracefully to the floor.
Hiking up this ancient mountain was creepy at night. Bugs attracted to my headlamp were pegging me in the head constantly. And they felt BIG. The hike took us about an hour and a half to get up the gnarly steep mountain. ALL steps and ALL uneven. But we finally made it up. It was AMAZING coming up the hill and seeing the newly risen sun shining its rays on the ancient ruins. We explored for a few hours and then decided to try to hike Wayna Picchu, despite missing the 400 person cut off (they only let the first 400 people in the park go to Wayna Picchu, but not everyone will go). We asked the guy if we could come back later and hike it but he just waved us through. We explored that secondary mountain ruin for a bit, took tons of pictures with our old school 35mm camera, and then b-lined for the overpriced snack bar. While we were having lunch we started talking to this really nice couple from Colorado, Travis and Dayani, who invited us to share a bottle of wine with them on one of the terraces. We found a secluded terrace and enjoyed their Malbec for about 2 hours just talking and taking in the sights. Fantastic. Theo and I stayed at the ruins until 4:30, a total of 10 hours, and then hiked down.
That night, while taking a Combi back from Oyantaytambo, I was so tired that I left my hat on the seat. Bye hat. We shacked up in a dorm at Loki again, but the rest of the tenants were in the mood to party, and we were not. We vowed not to dorm again unless absolutely necessary.
The next day we took a tour to Maras and Moray to see this odd circularly terraced ruin and the salt flats. The salt flats were really cool- giant puddles of water with crusty white crystals collecting along the sides of the puddle walls. That night we headed for Puno and Lake Titicaca
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