Ok so last time I tried this, the internet failed and my entire post was deleted, so here we go again, I hope I can tell you about Machu Picchu this time.

Thursday was a nice day at school. With fourth grade we sang 'Santa Claus is coming to town'. There were penpals from the USA at school, so we had them help us teach the kids the song. Result is that the song is stuck in my head pretty thoroughly now.
Second grade had all brought food to school. They had to arrange it all nicely on plates, then I would come take a picture of it, and when they were all ready they presented their dish in English. Then we ate everything. It resulted in utter chaos, but it was really fun to do.

Friday was a pretty normal day. The second graders brought food to school again, and tried to get me to eat it all. After school I packed a bag and went to meet Ditte to go to Ollantaytambo. About halfway to Ollantaytambo I realized I had left our train tickets in Urubamba. We decided to see if we could get another copy of them at the train station in Ollantaytambo. So we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and went in search of the train station. This turned out to be quite the assignment, as we seemed to get completely different directions from everyone we asked. We got there eventually, but the ticket office was closed. I could already see myself sitting on an overstuffed collectivo back to Urubamba, having to explain to my host family and the others that I was stupid enough to leave important documents next to my bed. So in a last desperate attempt to save face, I knocked on the door to the ticket office. Thank god the woman opened up. I explained to her what had happened, and like it was magic she produced a second copy of our train tickets. I was saved. Thank you magic Inca rail woman, you were a godsend. When we got back to the hostel the others were just arriving, and it turned out we were all staying in the same ten bed dorm. This must have been super annoying to the one other guy that was also staying there, as we took over the room as if it entirely belonged to us. There were chargers and other stuff everywhere. Ditte and I had brought snacks on the way back from the train station, so we sat on two beds and the floor to watch a movie and eat too many Bugles. Then we set the alarm for 05:30 and I went to take a quick shower before bed.

Here's how the shower system here usually works: you turn on the shower, you switch on the electricity, you wait until you hear the electricity come on, and you turn the shower almost back off again. You have a trickle of water left, and that will be warm. More water and it will be freezing. Less water and you either boil your skin off or the shower turns off altogether. Thinking I totally had this system pegged, I turned on the shower, I switched on the electricity and I waited. Nothing. I didn't hear the electricity come one. I flipped the switch the other way. Still nothing. I turned the shower off to within an inch of it's life. Still cold. There was nothing to it but to take a freezing cold shower. Luckily my bed was nice and warm when I got to it.

We all slept fitfully, worrying that we would miss the alarm and the train up to Machu Picchu the next morning. It did not help when the other guy in the room decided to go shower at 03:30 in the morning. Maybe he wanted to get back at us for watching movies and taking over the room. I don't know. Anyway, it was a weird night and we were all groggy when we got on the train the next morning.

The train ride up to Aguas Calientes was beautiful and totally made up for the night. I had a window seat, music in my ears, a steaming hot cup of amazing coffee in front of me, and amazing views. We rode down next to the river. It ran wild over the rocks in places, like it wanted to keep up with the train. In other places it lazily flowed along, talking all the space and time it needed. All the while framed by a fantastic, dramatic backdrop of gorgeous mountains. The hour and forty minutes it took were over really quickly.

In Aguas Calientes, while buying our tickets for the ruins, we decided to also climb the Machu Picchu mountain. We had no idea what we were in for. People are only allowed up the mountain between 07:00 and 08:00 or between 09:00 and 10:00. First of all to make sure that there's not too many people on the narrow paths. Second of all the make sure that no one goes up there in the hottest part of the day, or gets stuck and has to go back in the dark. On the sign at the checking post it said that the hike would take 4 HOURS up and back down. Since we had the tickets and the time we decided to go for it anyway and boy was it worth it. First though there were so many STAIRS to climb. It's 1600 metres up, and we did it in little over an hour. The only way to climb that high that fast is through stairs. Naturally, they were not even stairs either. They were stairs hewn out of rock, some were really high, others really low. It was tough to say the least, but also stunning, satisfying, and just immensely beautiful. The environment is very different from here in Urubamba. It's much more humid and it feels like the start of the jungle. Mosquitos rule the mountain. It's so green, with a ton of vegetation everywhere. The mountains seem more threatening, almost hostile, as they stand like sentries all around. The village of Machu Picchu seems to be caught in a bowl, surrounded by mountains going forever further up. At the same time it is on a rocky rise, and falls away at the edge of the village. It's breathtaking. It makes you feel like you are on top of the world, or at the edge of it, or in a bubble somewhere in the middle of it, all at once.

When we got down from the mountain we were exhausted and weren't sure our legs could carry us anymore, but we got back up and walked around the ruins. They are incredibly extensive, and it's so easy to imagine what it must have looked like all those years ago. In my imagination I saw little children playing tag in the streets and alleys. While their parents would be cooking in the houses, or herding the llamas into the fields around the village, or tending the crops on the many many terraces. We looked around for a while, and then decided to give our tired legs a rest in Aguas Calientes.

Aguas Calientes is a typical tourist trap. Everything is expensive, everyone is trying to sell you something, of which the quality is not very high, and it's an ugly town with hospitality and restaurants everywhere. I much preferred Ollantaytambo. It was still touristy, but smaller, cleaner, with more open space, and altogether prettier. We found the best little cafe in Ollantaytambo. The hearts cafe. They sell really nice food and drinks and donate the profits to a charity helping poor kids in Peru so they are fed and get an education.

When we got back from Machu Picchu we had another movie night. Everyone was tired and we'd had a late lunch and no dinner. So we put on Tangled and opened a bag of chips. We proceeded to awkwardly sing along to all the songs around mouths full of chips and mango juice. The other two guys (our showering friend from the night before now had company) must have thought we were completely deranged. Also because when the movie ended we barely had time to brush our teeth before collapsing into bed.