Yeah Machu Picchu!!!!... and I have done many other things since the last blog post. The picture attached to this post isn't mine, but Iwas there and have oodles of pictures exactly like it and will post them eventually.

I was planning on having thanksgiving in Pisco Peru, with the organization Hands On Disaster Response, and organization that I helped for about a week. I got there on the Wednesday before, realizing that if I really wanted to see Machu Picchu and all of the sites around Cusco, and also see all of the things between Cusco and Lake Titicaca AND enter Bolivia before Christmas, that I should probably go the next morning. So I said my goodbyes to Pisco, drank a bottle of wine, helped mash potatoes for the following day, and went to sleep. Early in the morning I biked the 80 km to Ica, where I would be able to catch a bus to Cusco. I had to totally dissaseble my bicicycle to get it to fit on the bus, and had a delicious dinner of chicken and french fries.... almostturkey and potatos. I called my family and said hello, and settled in for my 16 hour bussCama (bed bus) to Cusco. The trip was actually really comfortable: several movies, free food, nice seats... I got into Cusco around 2 o clock on Friday, got to my hotel and started frantically doing all the touristy things I could get my hands on.

The next day With friend <Leonardo who I met on the bus, I went to several archaeological sites in th Cusco Area; Pisac, Ollantaytambo, Urubamba, Chinchero... It was a little interesting because yhe was very into spending tons of money to go on all these adventures. In one month he plans on spending the same amount of money that I will in ten. SO we spent a prety penny on a taxi that took us to all of those sites and these salt flats too. The sites that we went to were AMAZING, and made us really excited tor Machu Picchu. If macchu Picchu was as good as these sites, we would have been happy, but we were sure that it was going to be great. Because we had spent a bit of money on the taxi this day, I convinced him to go the cheap, back way to Machu Picchu with myself and another guy from Japan, Takanori. Takanori didn't speak English or Spanish very well, so that made the 3 day trip pretty fun...

The back way to Machu Picchu goes as follows; Take the 6 hour bus to Santa Maria, on the way to Quillabamba, $5.60; take a c2 hour ollective to a hydro electric plant past Santa Theresa for $5, walk along the railroad tracks for two hours untill you get to Aguas Calientes, where you can buy your ticket to enter Machu Picchu, $20. Theoretically this will take ten hours, BUT when there is a huge landslide that takes out all of the road, and you have to walk across this huge pile of dirt and rocks with your backpack and when you get across you see that you were about a foot away from falling off a cliff to your death 1000 feet below.... it can take a few hours longer. Also when a pair from South Africa adds themselves to your group and proceed to break up in the 6 hours on the bus, and then fight for the remaining walk to Aguas Caleintes, it can adda few minutes as well. SO about halfway through the walk along the railroad tracks it got dark, which led to me knowing the Japanese word for firefly (houtar, I think) and also the ability to count to ten, because we were counting how many steps there were on the bridge in the dark above the creeks. (I think in Japanese 1-10 is ichi ni sang shi gok lok hich hach que jue). Crossing the creeks in the dark was quite a dangerous experience, and Leonardo fell and ended with a bruise the size of a basketball on his leg. Neat.

Checked into ur hostel (without the insane couple) and got ready to get up early in the morning. The first bus is at 5:30, but the people who REALLY want it get up at 4, walk the eight kilometers to the gate, and have the satisfaction of being first in line. Well, we wanted that satisfaction. We all got up around 4:15, and headed up the mountain around 4:45 ( a little late, I know) Leonardo did great even with his bad leg, and we puffed our way to the top around 5:45, with the gtes opening at ten. There was a group of about 6 other people before us, and looking down into the river valley was quite a peacefull experience...untill the first bus with 50 people showed us. Suddenly it became a lot less cool, but still we were in the front. Myself, Leonardo and Taka were 6th 7th and 8th through the gate, and as we rushed to the viewpoint... the fog rushed int. We seriously could not see 10 feet in frnt of our faces. All 10 of us ffastest people were a little low spirited, but my friends and I decided to climb Mount Machu Picchu anyways, even with the intense fog,. We started going up, and up, with a stray dog as our guide, and after about an hour we decided to turn wround, soaking wet and not even at the top. On the way down the fog started to lift and we started to see glimpses of the city below. A few more turns through the jungle and then BOOM, there was Machu PicchuA, with the mountain Waynapicchu behind it. The steriotypical Machu Picchu picture, with no one insight at the moment but me and my two friends. Amazing. The lost city of the INkas really was beautiful, and even with the 50 other tourists there in the morning, it was so nice to just sit and LOOK at this crazy city in the clouds. We saw all of the main city, really not that big, and then decided to also climb up Wayna Picchu, the mountain that is always in he back of the Machu Picchu pictures. The hike could be desctribed in one word. STEEP. It was all steps and ladders, but when we got to the top it was worth it. A view of Macchu Picchu form the other angle (and also the hydroelectric plant that we cad come from, and the town of Aguas Calientes below) is totally worth the trek, and the top of Waynapicchu is also another archaeological site, with other things to explore. We went down the back way, where the trail turned into (not exaggerating) a wire that you had to hold on to as you slid down the cliff. Leonardo was starting to get little slow on the downhills, but, as he was from Quito and a little better with the eleveation, still zipping ahead of Taka and I on the uphills. We got back into the main city of Machu Picchu around noon, when the place was literally crawling with tourists. I could see 500 at once, it was a little ridiculous, and I am sure another 1000 oout of view. We went down to the town around one (Taka and I walking, Leo ended up taking the bus) where we bought our return tickets for the train (46 US Dollars, the biggest ripoff in Peru) The train left at 5, got into Cusco at 9:30, and Taka and I had a rainy walk back to our hostel through the deserted streets.

I was planning on biking to Puno, near Lake Titicaca today, but I feel a little pooped still from our intense daysof ghiking, so I think that tomorrow or the next day I will end up taking a bus. Totally cheating, 100%, but I ghope to not take a bus in Bolivia at all. ahhhh. Sorry no photos right now, but trust me, they are amazing, you'll just have to wait. Also sorry for the atrocious spelling, this computer is really slow, and things I type do not show up for about a minute after I type them, thus all the spelling errors. OK, hope that everyone is well and had a good thanksgiving! ciao.