Llamas, Inca Kola, and a little taste of home in a far away place

Our Sunday morning started bright and early, as we got up and headed to the market to buy lunch for the day.  At 7 we met with our tour guide Carmen,  who would lead us around Machu Picchu. Thankfully,  the sun was shining in bright blue skies,  tummies were fairly settled, and everyone was hydrated (or well on their way). Our first adventure involved standing in line for nearly an hour as Carmen worked to get us round trip bus passage,  a consequence of our changed plans. No matter! The sun was shining and Catey was able to finish outlining our awesome UW PT sign.

Once our tickets were in order,  we hopped on a shuttle bus and began the trek from Aguas Calientes over the mountain to Machu Picchu. To say the road had a few switchbacks might be the understatement of the century,  the ride was quite... exciting... especially when two buses met along a narrow curve and head to decide which one got to back up!

According to Carmen,  they are not allowed to widen the road due to the environmental impact. We made it up in one piece and were ready to explore!  We had four objectives for the day: learn about Machu Picchu,  take an amazing panoramic picture while rocking our PT sign,  work Inca Kola into a picture, and the cause championed by Abby (though really,  we all wanted to) get a picture with a llama!

Our tour guide Carmen was incredible!  We learned all kinds of things about Incan history,  mythology and lifestyle while touring the ruins. It felt like we had to keep pinching ourselves because we couldn't believe we were really there! We stopped for lunch,  then headed back in to hike up to the ledge where most people get the famous panoramic view, a little disappointed that there had been no llamas grazing down below.  After a heart-pounding climb we made it, and got our sign picture.  We also discovered what PTs do when they get to the top of a mountain: squats,  planks,  stars,  tree pose...

Two items of our list and we decide to finish climbing up to the Gatehouse and maybe toward the Inca Bridge if we had time.  And sure enough what do we see when we get to the top...?  We may or may not have spent the rest of our time trying to convince llamas to be in our pictures,  but it was worth it.  

In a small world moment, we even realized that the one American we chatted to was from Seattle (actually Kent, which Catey and Jessica thought was pretty cool) and Catey saw her shirt twin wearing a Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon shirt.

Our items all checked off the list,  we headed back to the bus, just as the rain stated to fall. One bus, train and mini bus ride later, we arrived back in Cusco,  where our host mom Rossana was waiting with our evening snack,  then off to bed.

Stay tuned for more,
Jessica