on top of the world

my sister and i just got back from a weekend in aguas calientes/machu picchu. we took the train up on saturday and came back yesterday. it was kind of a crazy weekend, at least the first day, since our train broke down on the way up, which delayed us about an hour. and right when we were finishing lunch in town and planning to return to our hostel to go to the hot springs (there are hot springs in aguas calientes, hence the name which means hot water), it started pouring buckets of cold rain, so no hot springs for us. then we woke up on sunday morning, set for our day at machu picchu, only to find the water in our hostel didn't work at all, so there were no showers to be had or toilets to be flushed. d'oh.

BUT

we had decided to try to climb wayna picchu, which is the mountain to the north of the ruins of machu picchu (we were going to tour machu picchu after the climb). they only allow 400 people up each day, so we were awake at 4:30 am, on a bus up the mountain by 5:45 and in line by 6:30. we got in and it was seriously amazing!!

the line to climb THIS

it was a challenging climb
(especially for me, who hasn't had a gym membership since august and has been enjoying the culinary delights and drinks of peru for the past three weeks)
it took us a little under an hour each way

but we made it


and it was worth it - fantastic to be on top of the world!





machu picchu looks tiny, doesn't it?


my sister, jamie, with our canadian hiking buddies, virgil and nicki

so that was one of the highlights of my weekend. the train ride back also ranked pretty high, but more on that later. (let me just say there was a fashion show involved...) and i will get back to the jungle at some point, too, fear not.