Ugh. Apparently I can’t sleep at altitude for shit. And there were people in and out of the hotel at all hours of the night – I guess  we’ll be the ones doing that next week, so I can’t complain too much. Anyway, I didn’t sleep well at all. I guess I’ve never really slept at over 11,000 feet before. Guess it does get to me. 

By about 5:15, I gave up trying to sleep and got some coffee. We packed up the last of our stuuff, made sure we left our big packs in our room, and left the key in the door. Leaving our stuff was a bit disconcerting, but we couldn’t bring it all with us… 

We walked to the train station and “checked in” – showed our tickets to make sure we were in the right place. We waited a bit, then got to go aboard. 

We left pretty much on time, and the first thing that happened was that we started seesawing back and forth up the hill. Up a bit, then backwards up a little higher, almost like switchbacks on the train. That was cool! 

The train ride was pretty awesome. We got a snack and a cup of coffee, and then we got to go to the “observatory” for a show. There were a couple people playing live music, and we finally got to hang off the back of the train and take pictures. Super cool. Then back to our seats for a bit. 

The scenery was amazing. All these small canyons that opened up into valleys with bigger and bigger mountains surrounding them were just out of this world. 

Then after stopping at the last station for the last of the people, we got to go back to the observatory car. Holy SHIT! SO much fun! There were two dancers that did a little demo, then they started grabbing passengers to join in …  The guy was wearing a penis nose mask, which was ridiculously funny to me. Anyway, everyone was dancing and singing along until it was almost time to arrive at Aguas Calientes. 

We got off the train and managed to find our hotel with minimal issues. We got up to our room, dropped our stuff, and headed out for lunch. We randomly picked a place called Ponchos, which happened to be Trip Advisor’s number one restaurant in town. More ceviche and then pizza. A bizarre lunch for sure, but it was good. Then we wandered around a little more and headed back to the hotel to chill before dinner. 

We went to place number two on TripAdvisor, Chullos. Again with the delicious. I had a pisco sour that was awesome, and some grilled trout that hit the spot. After dinner, we went in search of another drink at a bar somewhere, and the one I’d found was empty, so we looked for another one. We went back over to the main strip, where two guys started fighting over us and trying to get us to go to their restaurant… It was pretty funny. We finally just picked one, and I made the mistake of ordering another pisco sour at a shitty bar…

That was TERRIBLE! I ended up not drinking it and ordering a beer instead. When we were finished with our drinks, we went back to the hotel and went to bed. The alarm is set for 5:15 tomorrow, it’s Machu Picchu day!

I woke up well before the alarm, as usual – yet another not awesome night of sleep for me – and got Matt up too. The hotel breakfast started at 5:30, and we went down shortly after that. 

Breakfast was scrambled eggs, bread, coffee, and juice. Pretty decent, actually. Then we went back up to our room, brushed our teeth, and headed out. 

The first mile or so of our walk was along a flat road, and we thought it was going to be easy… And it was, until we got to the bridge. We showed our tickets and passports, crossed the bridge, and headed up the road. 

Two minutes later the stairs started. Holy hell. It was about a mile, mile and a half, and we climbed about 1,500 ft.  Ouch! That felt like it took FOREVER… But, eventually, we got there. 

Unfortunately, by the time we got up, I was WHOOPED. I was so damn tired that I had to convince myself to actually get over myself and enjoy this, that I was at one of the seven wonders of the world. 

Machu Picchu itself was incredible! I guess I didn’t realize it was a whole citadel and city with various temples and rocks made into all kinds of stuff… I just thought it was the mountain behind it all. Dumbass. 

The weather was perfect, a little sun and some clouds to make the mountains look interesting… And it wasn’t too hot or two cold, which was nice, since I was soaked with sweat from the hike up for the first bit. 

We wandered around, took a million pictures and videos, and completed Circuit 2.  We stopped and ate some crap for a minute, then started to walk back down the steps… And made it maybe a tenth of a mile before we said screw it and went back up to the bus. 

We happily paid $24 for the two of us to get our sorry asses driven down the hill on the bus. We made it back to the hotel and laid down for a little bit. 

A couple hours later, we went to lunch at Mesa7 – more ceviche! It was pretty good, but certainly not the best I’ve had on this trip. 

After lunch, we went back to the hotel, and then Matt started feeling not great. While we were at lunch, he’d said he wasn’t very hungry and that he felt like he was catching a cold, so on our way back from lunch, we’d stopped by a pharmacy and grabbed him the Peruvian version of Tylenol cold and sinus…

But then, he got super queasy…

Y’all can imagine what came next. After an hour of it, he started the Z-pack that I was super happy to have, and after a few hours, he seemed to feel a tiny bit better. Let’s see how THIS one goes…

Oy, that was a rough night for Matt. I think he’s mostly alright, but yikes. NOT what we need right now. 

We went down to breakfast, where I ate and Matt didn’t.  We chilled out as long as we possibly could in our room, then we checked out and left our bags in the lobby. 

We wandered, slowly. Matt made it maybe 45 minutes before he wanted to stop. We found a coffee shop and ordered some coffee. I ordered an espresso, since FB told me today is National Espresso Day, so that was a happy accident. 

We walked around a bit more, found a bench to sit on by the river for a bit, and then it was late enough to eat lunch. Matt seemed to be feeling a little bit better. We went to Mapacho, where I had my daily dose of ceviche, and sampled a couple local beers. Matt managed a few French fries and a coke… At least he could do that. 

After lunch, we gave up and grabbed our bags from the hotel and just went to the train station to sit and wait for our train. The station was super loud, the loudspeaker constantly announcing the next train, but it was good enough to sit for a while. 

Eventually, we boarded our train and started making our way back to Cusco. They gave us a snack, and then they did a little demo with some sort of dancing rainbow devil spirit thing… It was fun. Then the people that worked on the train put on a fashion show of baby alpaca knits that were for sale on the train. Interesting. 

After the first stop, the couple across the table from us disembarked, and we turned around and put our feet up… I fell asleep for most of the ride back, thankfully. I think it was the best sleep I’ve gotten so far on this trip. 

We got into the station, walked back to Pumamarca, gathered our big packs and the keys to our new room, and went to sleep. 

Here’s the video: