Machu Picchu

we had gone to bed early the previous night in anticipation of getting up and starting the long trek up to machu picchu. even though we had been given the two free bus tickets we decided to eschew them on the way up in favor of hiking and getting a real sense of the experience. we left while it was still dark and followed the road up to the start of the hiking trail. the occasional bus would creep by us, shining their lights and warning us towards the side of the road and illuminating the low hanging clouds that swabbed the road.

i secretly wish i would have counted the number of steps from the first since the path soon seemed interminable: the clouds surrounding us only permitted vision of fifteen feet ahead, creating the impression of a path with no end, and before too long, the clouds enveloped behind too, shrouding the beginning in forgetfulness. it was like ending up in the forest maze in the first "legend of zelda." further along, we were both sweaty with rolled up sleeves and pant legs, lost and unsure how much further there was to go and through most of the water we had brought along to spell us for the day. the sun continued to rise and we felt we must be getting close as we could see the mountains around us clothed in clouds. eventually, we made it to the entrance with a fine commemorative plague in honor of Hiram Bingham, who found the place in 1961.

many pieces written about machu picchu often speak of a spiritual feeling evoked by the place. an hour and a half hike that was mostly solitary amongst only the sounds of nature definitely prepared me for that kind of experience. still, the clouds were thick and obscured vision. once through the gates and on a landing, we were unable to see anything except the terraces above and below us on our slope. we decided to sit, wait, and watch.

while i was reading about some of the history of the place from Elizabeth's guidebook, the winds blew right and revealed our first overview and glimpse of the ancient city, our very own south american shangri-la appearing before our eyes.

the effect was stunning. a few minutes more and it was cloaked in opaque whiteness again. we continued up our slope and encountered a guard post and a giant alpaca. for 25 peruvian soles, you could walk across his back, a strange capitalist encounter in the middle of the austere surroundings.

we continued along a trail that led to an authentic bridge. by this point it was obviously no longer in use, but i was struck and impressed by the craftsmanship that would go into making something that stable and sturdy at that time in such a tricky environment.

afterward we returned to the main ruins we had overlooked earlier. the sun continued to rise, along with the temperature, which slowly helped to lift the clouds, brighten the day, and improve sight lines in all directions. i feel like refraining from detailed explanation for many of the next pictures because so much of the beauty is captured in the images themselves.

for the entire six hours we spent on the site we had it almost entirely to ourselves. as i saw all the terraced levels, stone doorways, and half-crumbling walls penning in rooms, i was overcome with the desire to bring all my friends here and play a gigantic game of hide and go seek, although that would definitely be profaning the mystical aura i wrote about above. we decided to use our bus passes on the way back into aquas calientes, sat down and ate the worst tasting pizza i had in south america, played a few games of cards, and waited for the adventure that would behold us upon our return to cusco that night after the long train ride.

Bad US Movies on South American Buses #4

i couldn't be blogging about my experience in south america without keeping my ol' reliable thread of bad US movies infiltrating my experience. and since we are talking about bad movies from the US, it was only a matter of time before Nicholas Cage had his say. i wish he hadn't. the film is Next.

while you could stress certain aspects of this film to make it sound potentially good - based on source material by Philip K. Dick! Julianne Moore in a large role! - these kinds of things are ultimately misleading. Mr. Dick's material has turned into disreputable flicks in the past and i suppose Julianne Moore has bills to pay too. alas.

so what we get instead is an insipid star vehicle for the dimmest of astrological phenomena. the plot loosely follows a vegas magician who actually has the ability to see brief glimpses into the future. what does he use this miraculous power for? cheap shows and to pick up women. in a coincidence of coincidences, a nuclear bomb is somewhere in the US and eff bee eye agent Julianne Moore wants him to look ahead, see where it is, and stop it from exploding on native soil. what never is explained is why Nic Cage's character wouldn't want to help a significant portion of his nation from being exploded by terrorist acts.

aside from poor plotting, acting, special effects, and direction, the movie would be mostly inoffensive if not for Nic Cage's haircut.

high point: when Nicolas Cage gets punched in the face by a jealous ex-boyfriend

low point: apparently Nicolas Cage received special permission from american indians to film in certain parts of arizona. and this is how he repays them. shame on you Nicolas Cage.

"yeah, right" moment: at the end of the film you find out that about two-thirds of the movie never happened. and then it ends. neat.

the trip to aquas calientes

after spending another day in cusco visiting some museums, eating random street food (turned out to be heart), and getting travel arrangements together for our trip to machu picchu, we woke up early the next day to make the trip. there are two ways to get to machu picchu from cusco the first is the incan trail, a four day hike to the site as you camp along the way. the second is by peru rail, a train service that leaves early in the morning and comes back late so many people make it into a day trip. because we were visiting during the "rainy season" option one was not available to us and so we acquired tickets to leave cusco shortly before six in the morning.

getting out of cusco was kind of fun as it was very hilly and caused us to take several switchbacks within the first hour to get out of the topographically-challenging terrain. we eventually got onto a straighter shot that continued through the mountains and ran along side of a river. the windows on the train made a nice frame for pictures.

my problem was deciding if i wanted to stay awake and enjoy the sights or try to get some sleep because we had awoken around five. aided with a playlist i had made on my ipod that contained all the individual rap songs i had downloaded in high school and college, the decision to stay up was actually doable.

shortly after noon, we arrived in machu picchu pueblo also known as aquas calientes. most everyone on our train immediately made a bee line for the bus that takes you to machu picchu proper but Elizabeth and i set out to look for our hostel since we had decided to spend the night in town and hike up the path right away the next morning.

we had trouble finding our hostel in spite of the tiny-ness of the town because it turns out that the hostel (which was listed in one of Elizabeth's travel books and on the website hostelworld.com) was no longer a hostel at all but a hotel. they had even sent someone to the train station to meet us and take our bags, which we did not realize and, thus, not utilize. however, whlie searching for our hotel we bumped into a strange, english speaking man who asked us if we were going to machu picchu. we informed him we planned on going the next day and he gave us a free ticket into the ruins and also two bus passes. we felt a little hesitant about the legitimacy of these things and the man left shortly after, but it turns out they were legit, saving the two of us roughly $60 USD.

after checking in, we decided to spend time poking around town and visiting the market to get food. we knew they had a kitchen at the hotel but, again, we failed to realize that it was because they had a restaurant too. we asked sheepishly if we could use the kitchen in the afternoon to make some much desired popcorn as a snack and the lady at the desk obliged although she didn't really look happy about it. at this point we also confided in her that we had bought some food to make for dinner and she let us store it in the kitchen too. it was at this point that we met Juan Carlos, the cook for the restaurant. while helping us find the correct pots and everything else we needed for popcorn, we began chatting and quickly became friends. later that night when we went to make dinner (chicken, rice, few spices), we found ourselves in a slightly more awkward position as other people had come in to eat in the restaurant and we were walking freely in and out of the kitchen while conversing with the cook. he even started making our food for us and adding their ingredients to it, much to the chagrin of the lady at the desk. afterwards, he made us the specialty drink of peru (although it's also claimed by chile), the pisco sour and taught us how to make them as well. i've already forgotten, but man was that drink good. made with love, i'm sure.

with an early morning ahead of us and one behind us too, we called it early and set our alarms for 4am in anticipation of leaving by 4:30am and being at the gates when it opens at 6am.

So it's been a while

sweet goodness! a lot of time has passed since i last posted. you may notice that my last post roughly coincided with the time that i returned to the US and i hope that begins to explain why i have been so lax about finishing out my thoughts from my trip abroad. but here i return to make good on my quest to recap those things that have transpired.

of course, now i'm working with somewhat of a disadvantage from my previous posts given the greater remove from the actual experiences. part of me is intrigued to see how this affects the posts themselves and i look forward to compare the before and after.

but to pick up on the dangling threads from my posts, i was in the midst of a month long trip and situated in cusco, peru. having recently survived the terror that was "the shaggy dog," i was hoping to wash that from my mind with some trips to various incan ruins around cusco, which had been the ancient incan capitol. through some clever use of outdated student id's, Elizabeth and i were able to get a tourist pass that let us into about 12 different sites and museums in and around the city. cusco itself is built into a valley in the surrounding hills and the first site we hiked to (only about 15 minutes away) was Sacsayhuaman. Sacsayhuaman was very large and still being excavated and had been used alternately as a fortress and a site for religious ceremonies. apparently, people still go there to celebrate.....the winter solstice. yeah, that's the one. though largely run down, there were still some very nice places where the stone work was well preserved (or restored).

this set of ruins also had two other neat features. the first was some circular gathering places in a few different spots. the second was a feature called something that started with an "r" in the native tongue but roughly translates to "the sliding place." the second and third pictures explain why.

after ambling around for some time on dirt roads, through a pasture, up a hill, we found two more sites. the first is thought to have been a hunting lodge where many passed through before going out. at this point in the day, i began developing what probably was a 24 hour bug. my recollections become distinctly more fuzzy but there is picture evidence of this place and my being there.

the last place we visited that day before turning around and promptly putting me in bed and forcing lots of liquids into my body was a place called tambomachay. it had been built over a natural spring and channeled the water for use as a shower among many other things. it was neat to see the aquaducts and canals still working after all these years.

on the way back, we ran into this small girl

after hanging out with her and her livestock on the way home, we were invited into her hut and shared dinner with her family. we began talking about our respective heritages and it was found that i was the spirit brother of the girl's grandfather. soon we all sprouted feathers and flew with the eagles, gaining an excellent perspective over the entire area.

or maybe that was the fever dream i had while lying in bed at the hostel. see, this whole remembering thing is tough....