Meant to Live

   We awoke bright and early on Monday morning at 4am so that we could catch the first bus to Machu Picchu at 5.30. We were determined to see the sunrise and it felt like Christmas morning we were so excited so exhaustion wasn´t really a problem. We rode the but for about 30 minutes up the switchbacks and entered the park at about 6am. Lizzy started using her handheld camera to film our initial reactions and we were surprised that we were almost instantly at the ruins, we thought that there would be more of a hike.
     We climbed a bit more to get the view from above to catch the sunrise, and awestruck doesn´t begin to describe it. As cliche as it sounds, words can´t really describe the scenery. Not only are the ruins spectacular, the landscape surrounding it is beyond incredible. It´s so serene, surreal, and there´s and overwhelming feeling of saftey sitting there trying to take it all in. After a hard year, I felt so blessed to be somewhere so beautiful. It was a humbling experience to say the least.
    We hung out at the ruins for awhile and then Chels and I walked over to the Incan bridge to check it out. Our friends from Camiri Sandro and Betsey had told us about a really cool rock overlooking the cliffs there so we were excited for a photo-op and to see more of the mountains. After about another hour or so we headed back down to the entrance to meet our tour guide at 8.45. We were all excited to learn more about the history of the land and the amazing people who built all of this.
     After a little confusion finding one another, we finally started our tour at about 9.00 and walked down through the ruins learning all about the architecture and history. Our guide was super enthusiastic and we really enjoyed hearing everything he had to teach us. The Incans were seriously impressive, that was definitely our take-away from our time with him. (Lucky us, we were the only three on our tour as well so we got to go at our own pace.)
     Once we completed our tour, we walked over to the Sun Gate, which is part of the Incan trail and sits high above the ruins on one side on Montaña Machu Picchu. It was quite the climb, especially witht the altitude, but we had our coca leaves and considered it training for Huyana Picchu the next day. It was well worth it too since the view from the top is incredible. When we finished our hike, we headed back down and spent a couple more hours just enjoying the ruins and taking in the view, which I don´t think I could ever tire of. At about 2 or 3 pm, we were ready to hop on a bus after our long day to grab a good meal and rest up for our hike the next day.
     It was dumping rain when we got back to Aguas Calientes, (so my new catch phrase became no Aguas Calientes, Aguas Frio! due to the pouring rain and freezing showers at our hostel, but anywho) so we were excited to go to a restaurant for a nice warm meal.We treated ourselves a bit and went to a really nice sit down place and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. It was worth the splurge and totally necessary to refuel.
     We braved the monsoon status rains for the walk back to our hostel and bundled up for a night in of reading and early sleep. We indulged in some Peruvian junk food from a conveniece store and hung out in our room until bed time at about 7.30. We´d been up since 4 and had the same wake up call the next morning for Huyana Picchu, so we relished in the sleep and were super excited to head back the next day for our big hike.