The butt-crack of dawn

Thursday, July 15th
We woke up at 3:30am today to start our difficult hike up to the top of Machu Picchu. The first 20 minutes of the hike was flat and then we climbed up what seemed like thousands of stone stairs for the next hour. Mind you this hike is in the middle of the night so the only light we have to see where we are going is the ingenious invention of the head lamp. The Scottish guys in the group, Connor and Ally, had no light whatsoever, so I hiked directly in front of them and was their beacon in the night. I started the ascend without the coca in my boca (mouth) and I quickly realized the mistake I made. I popped that shit in my mouth quicker than Lady Gaga changes her outfits. The exhausting climb was more bearable once the coca kicked in. (side note- Mom...Dad... Don't worry I'm not addicted to cocaine nor it's deriving  plant). We got to the sun gate around 5:30am. The park opened at 6am and the point was to hike to the top to be one of the first in the park to see the ruins without hoards of tourists around. The sun slowly came to say good morning once we arrived at the top. I have to say... I had sweat like a beastmaster on the way up the steps and by the time we got into the park I was wet and cold. The gates opened and one by one we were let in. As I am walking down the long paved path, I am trying to imagine what I am about to see (hoping that all this hard work will be well worth it). The sun was bobbing behind the clouds when I got my first look at the Inca empire. She was breathtaking! Sadly, words cannot describe just how amazing, fascinating, enthralling, mysterious, and awe-inspiring Machu Picchu is. All I can say is you have to see it for yourself. (side note - McCarron family... You are never to old to see it...I saw lots of white folks in their 60's and 70's.) We went on a guided tour of the ruins. I learned so much about the Inca people and how they were master architects (most of the buildings were almost perfectly still intact), farmers (they had 50 different types of corn), and astronomers (they built circular reflecting pools so they could look down and watch the stars instead of injuring their necks by looking up for hours on end). You can really get a true  perspective on "the modern" western world and it's culture until you see something like this. I was atop Machu Picchu for 5 hours. I didn't want to leave. It's the best preserved Inca site on the planet mostly because of it's remote location. After taking it all in, my buddy Chris and I trekked back down the gazillion of steps that we hiked up at 4am. The view was stunning. Once we decended, we rewarded ourselves with the tastiest and most expensive frappachino in all of south America! We chilled for the remainder of the day and ate our last dinner together as a group. We took a train and then a bus back to Cuzco. I felt severely ill on the train ride home. I got food poisioning in Aguas Calientes and didn't manage to sleep much that night.