machu picchu, valle sagrado, bolivia

MACHU PICCHU
This was clearly the peak of my Peru trip. Judith and I woke up at 5am, got on the first bus to Machu Picchu, hiked through the fog, then climbed up to the top of Waynu Picchu (the "nose" of the face shaped mountains behind the ruins) just in time to survey the now-tiny Machu Picchu below us as the fog cleared. We took the long way down, climbing down slippery ladders and ancient rock Inca stairs. No words I write will do justice to the place, so get ready for photos soon.

VALLE SAGRADO
After seeing the coolest ruins in the hemisphere (maybe the world), Valle Sagrado was mostly about climbing up some cool mountains. My favorite were the ruins in Pisaq, perched ontop of a mountain that oversees the river and the serpentine roads that a colectivo would later take us up and back to Cuzco, past the roadblocks, miraculously. These buses cost about 75 US cents. We were the only non Peruvians in it. Rock.

GOODBYE CUZCO
My last night in Cuzco was spent with Judith and 3 guys from New York we met who were really fun. The guys were deadset on eating cuy (guinea pig) so that is just what we did. It was the foulest thing Ive ever eaten. It looked like a tiny tiny roast pig except with little rat teeth and claws and a rat tail. OK, it was pretty much like a rat. Im sorry to say I have photographic evidence of this too. The alpaca curry, however, was phenomenal.

HELLO BOLIVIA
We took a super super sketchy overnight bus from Cuzco to Puno and bonded with Chilean fellow travelers by complaining about the "direct" bus with "reserved" seats and "secure" baggage (read as, 4 plus stops in the night, packing locals into the stairwells, not letting us into the bus bathroom and making us pee outside, the persistent smell of old socks farts and llama, and the fact that the bus was from a different company than the vendor claimed to be...RIDICULOUS! HAHAHA!) I didn't sleep well at all last night. It didn't help that visions of sugarplum cuy were dancing in our stomachs all night...
That said, we made it to Puno and ignored the very forceful hawkers for about an hour until we could catch a bus (less sketchy than our now lowered expectations) to take us over the border. I am pleased to say that I had all my documents in order for the now-required visa that (only) Americans have to apply for to enter Bolivia (it's a populist thing, talk to Evo about it...) and they processed it at the border in about a minute, with no under-the-table fees or anything. Good job, Bolivia!

I now write to you from La Paz, where I've found a hostel and am getting ready to chill a little. 2 days to Cochabamba, 4 days to Chile. Rock and roll.