Day 4: Another mountain

We were up at "la playa" at 6 am and ready to hit the road. Our guides told us it was 3 hours up and 2 hours down and that the trail was well maintained. The trail was actually part of the Inca Trail so it was maintained by the government (or something like this). Well, of course we start out by having to cross over basically a waterfall that had created a massive landslide! It was actually such a massive river at this point that we had to take off our shoes and socks to cross. This was much welcomed relief to get out of my boots for a second. Putting them back on with wet feet was another story.

Once we got on the trail it was narrow and fairly steep, but also a pretty clear route. Our guides were super hungover from the night before (apparently they stayed up until 4 am drinking and hanging with the locals). They weren´t doing too much "guiding" on the trail and when we stopped at a waterfall Eddie actually stuck his entire head under the water. Talk about a hangover cure.  We passed by lots of great fruit trees and ate a few passion fruits fresh off the tree.

At the top of the mountain we stopped at an Incan stucture and learned a bit about the path leading to Machu Picchu. We got to see Machu Picchu peeking out from the clouds which just bolstered our enthusiams. We learned about many of the Inca cities and how the Spanish destroyed them and how the Incas protected Machu Picchu. There were 4 cities that were each exactly 75 KM away from eachother and the messengers would walk 75km each day! That is the amount we walked in 5 days....

Our descent down was fairly steep but the sun came out and we kept eachother company by playing 20 questions and talking about if American summer camps were really how they appeared to be on Bug Juice!

By the time we got off the mountain we were all pretty hot, tired and hungry. We had to cross over yet another landslide before reaching our lunch destination. We ate a speedy lunch and hopped on the train to Aguas Calientes to stay in a hostel (hooray!!) and prepare for Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes is a small little town smooshed in the mountains 25 minutes from Machu Picchu. It was specifically created as a spot for tourists to crash before getting up to Machu Picchu the next morning. And that is exactly what we did!