7, 8 and 9th day, Machu Picchu

Second day...I slept beautifully, thank God. I shared a room with Sandra but I had no trouble sleeping at all. We woke up at 05.00 o' clock in the morning (yes, I know, It was me that had to wake up that early.) You can see on the pictures how that lookes...We had breakfast and then we started walking with our backpacks through bushes and we had to climb for about 2,5 hours. This was quite heavy, but since I slept really good I hardly felt tired and I enjoyed the climb. At the top we ate fresh fruit and thank God, Juliano had dental floss..he probably read my blog some days ago :-) It's really rare and exeptionnal to experience things like this funny little place up in the mountains with some animals, this beautiful little girl with the fresh fruit and natural toilets. I cherish these moments because it is not every day that you go through live in this manner. After this we kept on walking and walking. This day we have been walking for about 8 hours, we been in the back of a truck (which was really scary, because he was really driving on the egde of very high curves in the mountains), we ate in litt le villages, we saw again amazing nature scenes and I was just out of it, of joy. This changed a bit, later that day when we arrived to a road which was so high and small attached to the mountains (this was not in the bush anymore), with a horrific steep abyss that I lost my breath for a moment. My body started to tremble allover and they had to hold my from collapsing on the spot. Vertigo all the way. After sniffing some alcohol I slowly continued this way for 2 hours. I can't really explain how high it was (believe me when I say high, it's high). The guide held my hand almost all the way (thank you Hugo..) and I overcame my fear at the end. I was really proud of myself and later that evening we all drank to overcoming fears...the drinking went on for some hours and we didn't go to bed untill 02.30 I guess. It was in a little village Santa Teresa, and at one point in the night all the lights of the town went on the blink (uitvallen). We were with three other Peruvian guys that we encountered during the first and the second day. They kept ordering beer and we drank Pisco sour (the national alcoholic beverage of Peru), and with no lights, just some candles it was really special again...I knew the next morning wouldn't become me, nor the others for that matter, because we all got a bit drunk..
07.00 hours third day. Oh, surprisingly no headache, but really tired from the night before, we pulled ourselves together to get trough the next day...wich was not so easy. First we passes some bridges (not too solid), and with the river heavily flowing underneath I firmly decided not to be scared and waggled over the bridge with newfound courage :-) Then we arrived at this river that we had to cross by cable...Yes, I loved it, sitting in this small box, people pulling on the rope to get you to the other side. Adventure all the way. Later we kept on walking by the river and it was a lovely day again. We also bathed (the day before), in hot naturale medicinale waters, we walked on edges, we saw parrots, and so much more, I can't describe it all. In the evening we arrived in this completely touristic village just Agua Calientes which is the stop before Machu Picchu. Here also we couldn't not leave the booze alone, but we didn't stay up that late because....next day: Machu Picchu..
This experience I can't describe. We left the next morning around 6.30 hours in heavy rain. We had to climb a very beautiful road for 1.45 hours. You can't do this without stopping every 10 minutes, due to various reasons. You loose youre breathe while climbing at this altitude, and secondly, the scenery is so surreal that you have to pinch yourself when you look around. You walk totally abandoned (well just us three) in the clouds and you see the mountains through the clouds, which is so very mysterious and magical that it's like you're in one of Shakespeare plays, a dramatic scenery mixed with your emotions in a very moist atmosphere. When we arrived at the end, which is the beginning of Machu Picchy, there is this very touristic place, totally misplaced after this quiet and lonely trip up. Here we went in the magic surroundings of M.P. Slowly the sun came out, with still these enormous clouds ambrazing the mountains, A little later I was witness to the clouds slowly making their way to another world, while I was in this ancient other world. I couldn't believe what I saw, neither can I write it down. So I leave you with your own imagination to picture this. It was and is by far the heaviest and most impressive experience I ever had, naturewise. Photos will be provided soon.

Today by the way, is my last day in Cusco, tomorrow I'm leaving for Puno, and islands in the lake of Titicaca and to Copacabana a town in Bolivia. Yes, my adventures haven't ended yet. I think they've just begun. Bit sad I am, leaving a lot of friends behinde...well, enough said about this.Hope you still enjoy reading my blog. See ye...