Okay fellow blog followers, let me tell you all about the best weekend of my life thus far. I honestly have been looking forward to this trip for YEARS and this weekend we were finally able to head to the sacred valley in Peru and go to Machu Picchu.
Let me start this story in October 20th, the day I left for Peru.
While Maeve and I were killing some time at O'Hare, I saw this book on sale by JoJo Moyes and since I liked her as an author I decided to buy it (first impulse buy of the trip!). However, up until the day before we went to Machu Picchu, I had not yet read any of the book. When we arrived in the Sacred Valley this past weekend, I decided it was time to take it out and read it. It ended up being a collection of short stories! So, I read a story about a girl who ended up traveling to Paris alone and had a great weekend.
How does that apply you ask? Well, read about the best day of my life through time stamps:
5:00am:
We leave our hotel in Urubamba in the morning to catch a taxi to get to the train station. Now I am not normally a morning person, but I was ready this day!
5:40am:
We board our PeruRail train to get to Aguas Calientes (the town just underneath Machu Picchu). The views out the windows were AMAZING and I was already so content I could not wait to get to Machu Picchu. *Ignore my awkward hair-part. Maeve was going to braid my hair on the train...this was pre-hair stylist time.
7:30am:
We arrive in Aguas Calientes and I took so many photos from bridges and of the town. Just look at it! It's the cutest town I have ever seen!
8:00am:
Lauren makes the decision to hike to Machu Picchu...alone.
Okay, I know what you might be thinking..Lauren. Why on earth would you do the trip alone? And did you really want to hike for 1.5 hours up to the top? Well my friends..Yes. Yes I did. The other people in my group that I was traveling with preferred taking the bus. However for me, I so much would have rather walked up to the views of Machu Picchu. I mean look at these photos even before the hard hike started.
*This jacket lasted about 10 minutes
8:20am:
I got stopped by the people who guard the first bridge because they wanted to check my ticket...which I did not have. My friends had it...on the bus. So, they had to send me a picture of my ticket and leave my real ticket with the guards at the top of Machu Picchu for me to pick up later. YIKES. However, I signed my name in the book, and they let me through!
During this hike, I literally stopped and held back happy tears with these views AT LEAST 3 times.
Now, this was not a normal hike, It started out on a road where the buses drive, but then it turned into STRAIGHT STAIRS. Not to mention the altitude is so much higher here, you better believe I stopped a lot to catch my breath. However, I did feel better because I made friends with other people going up who were in shape and they also had to stop a lot. HUGE *Shoutout to Melissa, Amy, and Dom (the Bingo Bunch) for all our hiking adventures this summer. Without having hiked at Devil's Lake I'm not sure I would have made it. Also *Shoutout to the MUFF at SNC for keeping me active so I could huff and puff my way through this.
9:00am:
I made a new best friend, Mowgla the dog. My golden lab mix is named Mowgli and so I very creatively named this dog Mowgla (I know, I should get a prize for that one!) But she followed me up for about 15 minutes of this hike. I also made friends with local Peruvians and a nice lady sold me a water bottle (Sorry Mel - I really did not have an option buy to buy a couple plastic water bottles..)
9:15am:
I MADE IT TO THE TOP! 15 minutes faster than it said it would take me online. Success? I'd say so!
9:22am:
I arrived at the gate and told the guy, in my almost fluent Spanish, that my friends dropped off my ticket and it matched my passport. The gate manager looked confused, but then this other guy a few stations down said "Oh! Lauren!" and had my ticket! Shoutout to you, nice young lad.
9:25am:
I walked through the gate and got ready to go around the corner, meet my friends, and see Machu Picchu. But, my phone did not have service...so I couldn't find my friends. I could either (1) wait there or (2) just go for it. I opted for (2).
9:26am:
I saw the most beautiful sight I have ever seen:
9:45am:
I sat on the top of Machu Picchu with my new traveler friends. They told me they did the Inca Trail for 4 days to get there, and I immediately added it to my travel bucketlist. It was so cool to meet people from all around the world (Including the Netherlands, France, Canada, and Belgium).
10:00am:
I had service in and out, but still didn't find my friends. I continued to take photos and enjoy my time!
10:30am:
One of the police guards took this photo for me, even though it didn't turn out the way I had planned. I was and still am unsure if he meant to mess it up orrrr.. you know, I just don't know...
10:45am:
I saw my friends from afar, but felt like it was sacrilegious to yell at Machu Picchu.. so I opted for I had better not. Instead, I took a photo with this llama.
11:00am:
I found the mountain Huayna Picchu which I did not pay to climb...another bucketlist item. I honestly think I may have been too tired to have completed it (especially with the altitude). So, oh well! I just have to come back!
11:10am:
I made contact with my friends! They were done with walking around and were ready to take the bus back down. I told them not to wait for me because I was going to walk down! So, I took more pictures of the village in the mountains:
11:44am:
I took one last picture then sat on a rock right before the exit of Machu Picchu and happy cried.
11:56am:
I paid S./2 to use the bathroom on top of Machu Picchu. Kewl.
12:00pm:
I began my hike back down to Aguas Calientes. I met 2 guys from Argentina and France and we chatted about life, traveling, goals, etc. the whole walk down. I really enjoyed it!
1:08pm:
I FOUND MY FRIENDS! We had a well needed lunch at Toto's in Aguas Calientes and I ate my heart out in "papas fritas" or french fries.
3:00pm:
We walked around Aguas Calientes and I got some souvenirs! The town is so cute and I just loved their quaint Plaza del Armas. *Shoutout to Mom, you would have loved the church too!
3:30pm:
My friends wanted to get a massage, but I did not want one. Instead I walked around the city! I saw some nature sights, met some more travelers from Berlin, and just walked around with a smile on my face!
5:30pm:
We boarded our train back to our hotel in Urubamba. I should have been super exhausted because I had been up for 12 hours, but instead I was just SO happy from the day I could have probably stayed up all night! Here is my pure joy with tears in my eyes face from the day:
8:00pm:
We arrived at the hotel and I decided it was the best day of my life.
If you remember the story I first wrote at the beginning of the blog, it was about a girl who spent a weekend alone in Paris. I really weirdly felt like I was supposed to read that story right before my Machu Picchu trip because I spent so much of the day by myself. I learned SO MUCH in just the day. I met so many people, figured out that I really value life experiences, and realized that traveling is just so amazing and nothing can teach you more.
I really cannot wait to come back..I think I left my heart there.
The rest of the weekend, we discovered the beautiful city of Cusco, Peru and I LOVED IT! Shoutout to the Coco candies for making the altitude a bit easier to manage. Seriously the views were to DIE for. The whole Sacred Valley is just indescribable - I don't have the words. If you ever have the chance, please head there. Oh! and by the way ~ take a ride on the zipline between the mountains and pretend you're a Condor. It's pretty neat.
HUGE shoutouts and thank-yous to Lauren and Kelly for all your suggestions, support, and love. I really appreciated it all!!
Also HUGE shoutout to my new Merrill hiking shoes. You got me through the weekend!
Safe travels everyone,
Lauren
P.S. Don't try and take photos with Llamas while you're holding food. They'll spit on you...not talking from experience or anything of course..
