"a revolution without a $40 entrance fee would never work"

god.
wanna hear something REALLY annoying? sure you do. well, approx 5 days ago i was in an internet shop, writing a blog about machu picchu, like any good blogger would, when the connection was broken. no one, of course, told me, and like an idiot i kept on writing, only to look up 10 mins later and see that nothing had appeared on the screen. my work was lost. fine, this happens to people all the time, especially in s.a. when we tried to tell the guy at the internet shop that this had happened, he did Absolutely Nothing, which is rather characteristic of people in the tourism industry of southern peru (dont even get me started on the "travel agents" i cant write about it, im still too upset. ill tell you later, or carly can tell you, since i just sent her the equivilant of a 900 page email about it). anyway, since it wasnt working, and no one was fixing it, we got up to leave. the man tried to charge us for an hour and a half, when we had only been on for an hour and 10 mins. they round up, but for the past 10 mins it hadnt been working, so we argued that he should only charge us for an hour. "no, 4 soles", he said lamely. we argued with him and he said absolutely nothing in return except "no", so we paid only what we thought we should and left. he shook his head at us, but didnt move or speak beyond that. i view this as laziness, and his loss. he could have argued.

this type of shit happens at least 54 times a day, at least in the touristy areas of peru. people provide lazy, subpar service and then try, but usually dont suceed, to rip you off. its all very hostile feeling. or maybe we are the hostile ones, i dont know. but, its a definate downside of travel, and it can make one very weary.

i was feeling this way, weary, around the time we got to cuzco, which i think i told you. the magical-ness of cuzco made this weariness go away. then, we set off on our machu picchu trek, sure to be a doozy. no, this was not the heavily acclaimed inca trail, or any of the other increasingly popular, ever expensive, multi day hikes. this was the cheap-o, non planner way. this trek involved walking, sure, but it also involved all forms of transport.

the first was an overnight bus from cuzco to a town called santa maria. this was, by far, the most difficult part. the night bus was broken but, in the grand tradition of south and central american bus drivers, the driver was determined to drive it. the bottom step of the bus had fallen off, requiring one to take a flying leap or deep plunge to get wither on or off of the bus. then, the television had been stolen from its case, i guess. no matter, the bus company was diligent enough to cover the empty case with a ripped piece of pink construction paper. there was a pronographic calander from 2003 plastered to the door. a lady came on, selling onions freshly pulled from the ground, shaking them, screaming "cebolla! ce-BOLL-a!" spraying soil on everyone (and who WOULDNT want a freshly pulled onion as a snack on the night bus?). people slept in the aisles. the tire went flat and it took an hour to fix it. i man with a large parakeet cage came and sat next to, but really on, me (the german girl we were traveling with was súpposed to sit there, but when the man came on she insisted we switch seats and she got the more comfortable seat next to anthony. she said she was allergic to parakeets.) after we fixed the broken tire, 2 am now, the parakeet man revealed his true spirit as a revolutionary and incited a mini riot on the bus by screaming, i think, that the roads were built by chinese people (?) and that peru needs a military goverment. or, i need to go back to spanish school. which one do you think?? either way, there was shrill screaming for the rest of the bus ride. oh, and, on 3 seperate occassions we had to back up 30 kiometers, on the winding cliff side roads, because there was forthcoming traffic and the road wasnt wide enough to let it pass without at least one vehicle falling off the cliff. judging from the way the driver and his assistant panicked, no one had ever considered the possibility of forthcoming traffic on this 2 way road.

we got to santa maria at 4 am, just in time for the last COMBI to the next town, santa teresa. the combis ran only from 4pm to 4 am, not to be confused with 4am to 4 pm. does this seem strange to you? btw, i know i already explained combis, but i will again. they are broken down vans, with a few extra seats, that would normally hold 5 people, but typically hold 25-35. not exaggerating. anyway, we met up with a group of israelis on the combi and deduced, of course, that we were being charged 3x the normal price. the isrealis, of course, were not having it. and at that point neither were we. following in the tradition of our ever brilliant leaders, we banded together to fight for our cause, threatening to all leave the combi if we didnt get a fair price, 2x what locals pay. but the combi driver insisted and our plan was destroyed when a french couple got on and said that they didnt mind being overcharged. again with the french! so, with our feet twisted around our necks, we set off for santa teresa. we arrived there as it got light out. from here we had planned to walk 6 hours to aguas calientes, the town closest to machu picchu. but then we heard that there was a truck, one of those fun pick ups where you stand in the back and banana leaves hit you in the head, that could take us to hidroelectrico, the next stop on the way, thus cutting 2 hours off our hike. cool, we thought, we will wait. i really like those trucks.

but there was one slight problem. a white water rapid was between us and the place to catch the truck. there was no bridge. but, brilliantly, there was a zip line with a rickety one man cage attached. in order to use it one must sit cross legged in the cage and be pulled, by gravity, 1/2 way high above the wide river. the next 1/2 required manual labor, as the wire sloped upwards and one had to pull herself alone using a rope. i dont know if you can picture it, but it was kind of nerve racking. still, very fun and a totally different mode of transport. anthony and i managed to squuze in together and we made it, tho i think the line broke after us.

then there was the truck, which we wound up waiting for for 2 hours. keep in mind no one had really slept the night before, so waiting wasnt too bad, except for the mosquitos which were brutal. people spoke in different languages and built a fire to keep the bugs semi away. after the truck we set off to walk towards aguas calientes along the train tracks. the directions were simple - walk on the train tracks. we, of course, immediately got lost and wond up in the middle of the jungle, basically. some wierd bug bit me and my finger swelled up, and then we found our way out and back to the tracks. we walked on the tracks (which were not evenly spaced, by the way, so the walk became cumbersome, though not difficult) along a stream, crossing rickety bridges, for quite a few hours. then we bumped into the french people and stopped, took our clothing off, and jumped into the stream (well, not the german girl). it was cold and glorious, with big jungle leaves everywhere. i worried about piranhas. then we resumed walking for 2 more hours, finally making it to aguas calientes at 3 where we found a crappy hotel, ate a bad pizza, bought our extremely expensive ($40 each!!!!) entrance tickets to MP, and went to sleep immediately.

the next morning we woke at 3:30 to walk up to MP, thanks to a very nice american couple staying at our hotel who woke us up so we could all hike together. we ate granola bars and set off in the pitch, pitch blackness with no flashlights to walk straight up the steep hill directly to machu picchu. we could have taken a bus but i wanted to feel that i had made some sort of effort to get there, to MP, and that it was the end of a journey in a way. plus, the bus cost $6 each. so we climbed, luckily someone had built stairs, and it wasnt easy, but we were at the lowest altitude we had been in in a while, and i didnt find it all that difficult. plus it was, by far, one of the most beautiful hikes ive ever been on. after some time it began to get a little lighter out, and i could make out the big trees and ragged mountains surrounding us. i cant really explain why, but it was just so beautiful. sadly, we lost the american couple along the way, and never ran into them, so i hope they made it up there.

at the top, the light had come out. we passed through the gate and saw immediately what we had been seeing for years, but had never really seen before. the mountians were incredible, and the ruins were so much grander than i thought anything could be, and the alpacas were there too, eating the grass and peeing. and we found a rock, hovering somewhere over the whole scene, and we sat down, and we ate chocolate, and we stared.

end point: i am now broke, but no longer weary.