Nice to mee-choo, Machu Picchu.

This past weekend I traveled to Cusco and Machu Picchu with Andi and Georgina, two other volunteers. We left Thursday night by bus and arrived Friday morning in Cusco, a beautiful city (where my host brother lives). Right away, we decided to buy our train tickets to Machu Picchu only to find out that ¨there weren´t any tickets for the next two days,¨ so the travel agent man told us. We wanted to hear it from the source, so we ventured to the train station, where we bought our tickets quite easily. We think the travel agent guy just wanted our money; he offered a helicopter to us for $250 per person to fly us to Machu Picchu. . . no thanks.

We traveled to Aguas Calientes (the town closest to Machu Picchu) on a few cheap buses and one very expensive train ride on PeruRail (they basically have a monopoly on transportation to Machu Picchu).Once in Aguas Calientes, we set up our tickets and entrance fees for the next day, settled into our hostal, and went out for dinner. The town of Aguas Calientes is basically...ugly because it exists almost solely for Machu Picchu tourists. Everything is concrete and looks like it was built too quickly to accomodate all the tourism. It´s in a beautiful location, though, and there are tons of really interesting people there.

Bright and early Saturday morning--5:30 to be exact--we were first in line for the first bus to Machu Picchu. Thirty minutes later, we were in the clouds...literally. They didn´t go away. The three of us wandered the ruins for about 3 hours, using our guide book in place of a guide. Finally, at 10:00 the clouds cleared, and we were able to get some wonderful pictures:

And of course, THE picture, which could never do it justice:

We spent much of Saturday afternoon returning to Cusco (the train ride back included a lovely alpaca fashion show). Once there, we went out for dinner and spent the night in a hostal close to the main plaza. Most of the day Sunday was spent wandering around Cusco, eating, shopping...you know, the usual. Sunday night we hopped on the bus back to Arequipa, arriving at 6:30 am and heading straight to work. Needless to say, we were yawning a lot on Monday.

Today in the school women came and gave a Hep B vaccine (or C? I can´t remember...one is for STD´s or something, but the kids got the other one). They all did very well; nobody cried! Below is Angel after his shot:

This week is my.....last week. ¡No puedo creer que tengo que salir! The week is filled with last minute errands and gift buying and family time and volunteer dinners and such, hopefully ending with a nice night of dinner and salsa dancing. Probably one more post is on its way after this, including my last few days here and goodbyes and ¨despedida¨ dinners and last thoughts of my experience. Take care, everyone. Can´t wait to see you soon!

Hasta luego,

Jenna