Day 4 - Arriving at Machu Piccu!!!!

So this was our last day ... it will be the day that we will reach Machu Piccu! We were so pumped and ready in the morning. So funny... was talking to Caleb and he said that when the porters knocked on our tents for our wakeup call... he was already up and could see the tents light up one by one ... except one lol (Dave and Shaun's tent which took a while). I thought that it was a cute little story to remember for me really than anything else. I can just see the way each tent lighted as though it was choreographed. Anyways!!!!

We gobbled up our breakfast as fast as we can and it was an easy breakfast the porters made as they will be heading back to town where our duffle bags will be dropped off. They were also nice enough to pack us each a snack bag! In it was a sandwich, yummy mint chocolate cookies and a peach/fruit drink for when we arrive at Machu Piccu and walk around for a few hours.

We waited in line for about 30 minutes or so then once the gate opened, we were all off with all the other groups in the lineup. Steve and I were lined up at the front with other groups that were pacing the rest of us. The trail could handle more of a one person lineup so we had to lineup one after the other unless we yielded to let others pass. I was surprised I kept pace as it was a bit fast but the conditioning of the trail the past few days as well as adrenaline carried me through and was just crusing up and down the trail. It didn't last long until we stopped at the bottom of what Jorge called the Oh My God Steps.

The OMG steps were about 60 steep steps all the way up before reaching the peak and by that time I was so hot with all my layers that I stopped at the bottom with Margaret and started to strip down. Amazingly, it didn't take long to get up there and once up there... it was just awesome! It was such a view and I was so proud of everyone who made it as it was such a long journey to get there and very worthwhile! We took some pics ... It would have been great if we had a group pic up there as we haven't had the opportunity to do so when we all reached the Dead Woman's Pass at different times and waiting would not be fair to those who were there first esp cause it was so cold! But Jorge wanted us to have a pic once we were at Machu Piccu which was about another 10-15 minute walk down a few steps. The girls and I took our time and actually took pics and talked to Jorge about some of the vegetation we saw along the way down. 

We followed these uni spanish girls on the way to the Piccu. It was neat to be behind them as they were singing some songs in Spanish and they were good! Once we got there and gave a loud whoop, we joined our group for a photo opp. Ah good times mates ... good times! I will miss these guys as they were such a great group to be with.

Jorge gave a tour around the Machu Piccu explaining some of the areas and symbols that we see. The dude is so knowledgeable! I cannot regurgitate any of the mega specifics he says ...though I am sure Migel can as he was using his camera to remember some of the info that Jorge was talking about. After that, we got to wonder around the Machu Piccu city for the next 2 hours. We met up at the town at the bottom in a restaurant called Apu something lol ... can't rem at this time as I am just typing as much as I can. It's a pizza place. We took a bus into town that took about 20 minutes. It was rainning then. We had a bit of a time to kill so we went around the market hoping to find a tee that said we conquered the Inca Trail. We did eventually find one for ourselves and went on our merry way to meet the rest of our mates and chow down on some food!

Apparently, as we were on our hike...there were people that took pics of us including the group pic before we started the hike. They gave us (for a price) the pic acting like a certificate saying that we finished the trail and had individual photos of us during the hike. I didn't recall the latter and that made sense later as I had no individual pics lol oh well... you know how I love being behind the camera than infront!

We took a 230 pm train back our starting point and then the van back to Cusco and our hotel. The 4 of us had Jorge book a massage for us when we got back as our trip will continue with more trekking in the Amazon and our muscles were tight at that point (as I am sure everyone else was). We weren't sure if anyone else wanted the massage so we never asked. We were just wanting to loosen up before more trekking. The girls were waiting for us at the hotel and came into our rooms to do a 1 hour massage. It didn't leave us much time to get ready and meet up with the gang for our last supper out but we did our best. I wish I had my jeans and some fresh good clothes!

There was a few stragglers who needed more time to get ready, so the ones who were ready just headed out to a pub close by the plaza. It was rainy as per usual in Cusco but we dealt with it. I can't remember the first pub we were at but it was pretty full so we decided to head to another across the street and sit on the balcony to make sure we spot the stragglers later on when they did get to the plaza. So we waited about 40 min and had some great chats and some drinks to get us by until the real food. We did stop by the streets stalls for some skewers - chicken with potato ontop (there was the choice of beef as well). The potatoes here are so good though these were a bit dry. Did you know there are more than 1000 types of potatoes here in Peru?! Jane and Kristina introduced us to the hot tamalis ... they were pretty good as well. 

Once the gang was altogether, we were all trying to decide what to eat and didn't want to spend an arm and a leg for it esp in and around the plaza. Heck, McDs even came up and I was game for that! I was just mega hungry at the time ... mega only in the terms of what my darn stomach can handle since not feeling so well. By then it was just pouring and the restaurant "The Muse" came up and Caleb ran in the rain to do a check. It was so crazy. The rest of us hung back for a bit. The rain was not letting out so Shaun, Jane and I just decided to make a run across the plaza to the Muse to join Caleb. There were huge puddles all over the place and there was no way that anyone would have been totally dry doing what we did. It was a fun and memerable night as we chatted, laughed, watched Eva get drunk and dance in her chair ... The 3 of us girls decided not to head to the Disco althought it would have been fun. I let Helen make the call with Eva and her drunkiness as I didn't really experience that with Eva ever except for family functions (which was different). So Helen thought that it would be best if we take her home cause she didn't think she would make it and she was right as Eva passed out on our bed as soon as her head hit the pillow. Perhaps next time we shall all meet and dance the night away :)

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