Inca Trail n' stuff

For most of the 3-4 hours train ride to kilometer marker 104, I spoke to some new friends in my group. There were 9 of us in all...a few of Kiwi's, a Brit and a Canadian. Solid overall. I signed up for the 2 day hike to Machu Picchu and I'm glad I did. I briefly considered the 4 day trek where you sleep in tents for 3 nights. Not my cup of tea...especially considering how much you sweat during the hiking and the fact that you can't shower for 4 days. Our hike was tough at times but really not too bad. Along the route, which went up the side of some mountains overlooking the Urumbamba river, we passed several Inca ruins. In the early early afternoon we made it to the sun gate and got our first view of Machu Picchu. I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed by the sight of it after having seen so many postcards. Nothing could have been further from the truth. It was truly breathtaking. The ruins were relatively empty due to the time (most of the one day visitors leave around 2 or so to catch the train home) and the sun was shining brightly without a cloud in the sky. After we took the obligatory group and individual photos in front of the site, we headed down to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes. After a day of hiking, having a nice soak in a natural hot spring really hit the spot. One little surprise was that the ground in the pools was not hard and smooth, but made up of tiny sand/pebbles which did a nice job of massaging the feet.
The next morning we woke up early and headed back up to the ruins. It's a good thing we didn't try and catch the sunrise because the whole site was shrouded in clouds. It did lend a nice air of mystery to the ruins however. After a two hour guided tour (Our guide Justino and Elvis, the porter who carried the Oxygen were both awesome) where we learned some of the cooler aspects of the ruins (the medidation room for instance was really cool) we were given a few hours to explore the site. I was amazed how big the whole thing is...and the fact that they built all of it on top of a mountain in the middle of the jungle is really impressive. I was going to climb the big mountain that overlooks Machuu Pichhu, Waynapichu, but I was way too tired so instead just had a picnic and chilled in one of the fields that overlooked the river valley. Not a bad way to spend the day.
On the trainride back to Cusco, I upgraded my train ride to take the Vistadome, which has a lot more windows and a fashion show. Fairly strange.
Back in Cusco, I took a free salsa lesson at one of the clubs. Definitely want to get better at that. Because the local (compulsory) elections were on Sunday, none of the bars were technically allowed to serve alcohol. Guess they don't want people sleeping through the voting process or showing up all kinds of hungover.
Sunday morning, the day of my flight to Santiago, was the first time I saw rain in Cusco. Of course this caused pretty big delays and I thought I was going to miss my connecting flight from Lima to Santiago. After a nice sprint through the airport though, I managed to just make the second leg. So relieved as the next flight wouldn't have gotten me into Chile until 4 or 5am. On the plane I was seated next to two very nice Columbian women who were helping me practice my Spanish. In case you're wondering, the movie they showed onboard was "Click" with Adam Sandler. Also, not as bad as I thought it would be.
Next up, Santiago.