Inca Trail Day 4 - Machu Picchu

Day 4 started WAY early. We had to get up, get packed and finish breakfast in time for the porters to pack up and make it down to meet their early train. We also had to get in line to start the trail. Machu was gone when I came out of my tent, but he came back around as we were getting our stuff together to go. He wondered around and visited other people some. I assumed he would stick around the camp sites and wait for the next groups to come so he could get some tasty food. 

After finishing eating and packing, we went to the waiting point at the beginning of the trail. We had roughly an hour to wait. What do you do at this point - before 5am, on the side of a mountain, in the dark? Well, if you're with Dave, you have a dance party, of course! The dance party lead to the limbo with walking sticks, the limbo with walking sticks turned into one of our Peru Treks family members nearly falling off the mountain, but no worries, she caught herself with her arms! Way to go! At that point, everyone calmed down a bit and just waited. It was almost time to leave anyway.

We walked to the first checkpoint, where we saw our good buddy Machu again! 

 It's blurry, but we were saying goodbye to Machu

We hiked along for a bit.

 I love the mountains

 I would really like to retire somewhere with a view like this

We hiked until we got to a point where the climb was so steep, it was just easier to climb with your hands than use hiking poles. Guess who came along to join us for this part? Yep, it was Machu again! Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of this part. It was pretty cool!

Eventually, we made it to the Sun Gate

Our very first view of Machu Picchu!

 So much hard work paid off! We kept each other strong when we needed it most. Babe, I'm SO glad we were able to do this epic journey together!

Look who found us again!

 Peru Treks family! Say Sexy Llama!

 Continuing on to Machu Picchu

 Getting closer!

 So close!

 Dave and Theresa

 So amazing!

 These are what the stones looked like before they became part of Machu Picchu! It's so crazy that humans were able to start with this...

 and get to this, without modern technology!

 My person! :-D

Leaving Machu Picchu 

We left to go meet our group in Aguas Calientes for lunch. We presented our guides with our tip and thanks and we got some great news that one of our couples had gotten engaged earlier that day! Congrats Morten and Sandra!!! (top right in picture below). We enjoyed a much deserved beer and pisco sour as well!

Last time all together as a family!!! We truly had an amazing group of people! We had people from all over the world and I really enjoyed hearing about their stories during our journey together! I wish you all the very best and I hope our paths cross again someday!

After lunch, we were able to leave our bags at the restaurant while we explored Aguas Calientes for a couple hours. 

We found a bar that had a great happy hour special on Pisco Sours. After we ordered a round, we realized why they were so cheap and we left. Next, we found a place that served a good selection of craft beers, so we went there and people watched.

And we saw this!

We went on to the train station and waited for our train while we got some food. Guess who we found again?!?

Saying goodbye to Machu...for real this time!

We took the train (I think an hour and a half or so), then took a bus for a few hours to get back to Cusco. 

Funny story now, but definitely not at the time - I don't usually sleep well in vehicles, but I was finally starting to fall asleep on the bus ride, when our daypack fell out of the overhead compartment, straight onto my head! It wouldn't have been so bad the camera hadn't been in it. That HURT! It hit me hard enough to put a little gash in the side of my head. I was able to get the bleeding to stop without too much trouble, but it was no fun.

FINALLY, we made it back to our hostel. It took us a while to get checked in again (we were just here a few days ago, do you really need to make ANOTHER copy of my passport and have me fill out the same exact paper I just completed?) and get our bags. We get  up to our room and start to get our stuff out to get showers when Dave knocks on our door. They said they have cancelled his reservation since he "missed" his checkin time. Josh made our reservations together - our checkin  time was 11:00pm - it was 10:45pm. Luckily, I thought to print all of this information out and Josh was able to take it downstairs and get it taken care of. I finally make it to the shower and start my first HOT shower since Tuesday night. The water goes out just after I wet my hair (at least I've washed my stinky feet at this point). I try the other faucets and other showers - nothing. I'm livid at this point. I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm dirty. All I want to do is take a hot shower, get a quick bite to eat and SLEEP. Josh went downstairs to check and the water is off in the whole building. I take yet another Wet Ones shower and get dressed so we can go find some food. At this point, it's after midnight, so that's easier said than done. We finally find a place and get some food. It was nothing to write home about, but it was food. Josh was feeling horrible (he gets car sick pretty easy and even Dramamine can only do so much on the swaying train ride we had), so we made our way back to our hostel. We find out the water is still not working. We contemplated leaving and trying to find another place to stay for the night, but we weren't sure how far the water issue went and we were both just too exhausted to deal with finding a room after 1:00am. We cleaned up the best we could and just crashed. We didn't sleep great. There were fireworks at all hours of the night and into the morning, even after daylight. So weird and very unwelcome when I was trying to sleep. Turns out there was some type of parade and festival the next day.