As many people in our group have been saying, “One down, Six to go!”. The highlight of my time in South America has definitely been our adventure to one of the Seven Wonders of the World-- Machu Picchu. This was the entire reason that we traveled to Cusco and Saturday was the big day. We had to be ready to leave the hotel at some incredibly early time (5:30am), loaded up in our trusty bus and drove for about 2 hours into the mountains. In Ollantaytambo we boarded our Vistadome train, which in the thick and dense fog, almost felt a little like the polar express. Our group had an entire railcar to ourselves- complete with leather seats and little pods of four with a table to sit at. The windows were huge and the ceiling was full of sky-lights, perfect to view the lush greenery and Urubamba flowing beside us almost the entire journey. The ride was another hour and a half and began to feel even more like the Polar Express when workers in full uniform brought a cart down the center isle to cheerfully hand out pastries, coffee, and mate de coca. The train dropped us off near a small town and huge market where we boarded yet another bus to take us to our final destination. As like much of our travels, this bus ride was unlike any other that I had been on before. It was a very tall bus, and Mackenzie and I were sitting in the very back seat. The road up the side of the mountain was very steep and curvy that we felt the sensation of fishtailing over the edge with every turn. Despite the thick clouds, the views were breathtaking… and we hadn’t even made it to the peaks yet!
The hours of bus-train-bus journey it took was immediately worth it once we reached the peak, walked around the bend, and soaked in our first views of The Wonder. The ancient city was still covered in a blanket of fog from the morning, but was absolutely incredible nonetheless. Nacho led us around the entire ruins, stopping to explain how these places were built and what life was like there. It was so mind-blowing to think of people creating this strong haven on the side of these immense green mountains. If I could close my eyes, I could almost imagine the stone ruins when they were first built—innovative, massive, and filled with indigenous people living their everyday lives. The stairs and pathways were often so steep and right on the edge that I had the feeling that with one wrong step, I could fall right off the side. This feeling, however, did not keep me from climbing and perching on ledges and rocks, balancing with my camera, attempting to capture the magnificence of this place.
We were lucky to be able to spend three hours at Machu Picchu, but I feel like the time flew by so fast! We had a 90 minute tour with Nacho, ate lunch at a huge buffet offering traditional Peruvian foods and a life band. We ended up only having about 45 minutes of free time to climb up to some of the higher peaks and to take a million photographs. However, I would have been content having the entire day to explore! We said some quick ,sad goodbyes to this incredible place that we weren’t sure we would ever visit again and hopped on a bus to take us back down to the train. After another scenic journey back to Cusco and an even longer bus-ride through the rainy evening, we made it back to La Prisma. Our day of Machu Picchu was so long and packed full of beautiful views and ancient tales, that it is easy to look back on it as a dream. However, I am happy to have my official passport stamp from my first Wonder of the World and hope to follow it with six others!