Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu, Peru

The Little Blessings We See Everyday

May 16-19, 2018

      We arrived in Peru! We were so excited to go! We had many options after Columbia when we were planning our trip, including Ecuador and Venezuela, but none of them felt right and didn't seem safe. I looked up flights to Lima just for fun and they were fairly cheap and it felt right. So we went! 

     We got to Lima late at night and walked a mile to our hotel. My backpack for our last flight cost us $45 because the airline was one of the super cheap ones that charges for everything. We were going to use the same airline to and from Cusco and so we left my backpack at the hotel we were at which was nice of them. We were also able to print our boarding passes there for both flights which otherwise would have also cost us $50 each flight if we didn't have them printed. So we felt lucky that we were able to save some money with the hotel we had in Lima. We then went to sleep around 9 because we had to wake up at 3:30 and get to the airport for our flight to Cusco. 

     We got to Cusco and decided to walk to the center because we had all day there. It was an hour walk but we didn't mind. But it was meant to be because who did we happen to run into? The missionaries! We were headed in the same direction so we walked with them for thirty minutes or so. As we walked and talked about the church in Peru we felt it was a little tender mercy to have met them. They then showed us a great souvenir market where we bought some alpaca sweater hoodies because it was a little chilly. We also bought a few other souvenirs but not too many because we knew we would have to hike with it all.

     We then went to the center and there was a parade going on and we weren't sure why but it was fun to see. It was also a perfect sunny day! We took pictures with alpacas and Llamas and hiked above the city to overlook it. We then got on a colectivo which is like a taxi van but also a bus. We took it to Ollantaytambo and the drive was one of the most beautiful drives through the country of Peru! It had rolling hills and giant snow capped mountains in the background that were gorgeous.  

     It was a two hour drive to Ollantaytambo but well worth it. It's an old small town where you can't go any farther by bus and so we had to get on the train there, but we had a few hours to kill. There's some neat ruins there that we partially explored. The people there always wear beautiful, traditional colorful clothes which we loved. We then went to take the train and if I had my backpack it would have cost extra for luggage so we were so glad I didn't have it! It was another little blessing which we didn't expect. 

     The train though was late by almost two hours but we eventually got to Aguas Caliente, the town below Machu Picchu, around 11:30. We got to our hotel and went to bed after midnight. We woke up at 4:00 so we could get ready and start hiking! We could have taken the bus but it was an hour line and cost $10. We hiked in a line of hundreds of other people though but got to the top in good time. 

      We went into the park and it was so foggy we couldn't see anything. It was mystical in a way though as we walked through some of the ruins. We then did a hike to Montaña Picchu, a mountain peak behind Machu Picchu, (but not the famous one in all the pictures). We wanted to do the famous Huayna Picchu but it was booked two months in advance. We were lucky to have booked ours when we did two months in advance and still get tickets. 

     It was another hour to the top, and so with a total of two and a half hours of hiking, 3,400 foot elevation gain and a couple miles of hiking, we made it to the top. It was foggy on our hike and we couldn't see anything and were so sad. When we got to the top the fog cleared and we could see all around us beautiful snow capped mountains, the river, the Inca Trail and then Machu Picchu two thousand feet below us. It was incredible! 

     We then hiked back down and it was hot. At that point we were so glad we did the early morning hike and realized that it was a blessing it was foggy because with the sun shining it was hot and so many people going up looked miserable. It was hard enough as it was without the heat of the sun! It was another tender mercy where we realized bad weather can be good. We were also so happy for the beautiful weather because the weather said it was rainy all week and so we were blessed as always with amazing weather! 

     Got to the bottom and began taking pictures of Machu Picchu and exploring the ruins. They were amazing, beautiful and well preserved. It was so fun to explore them and see the llamas walking around every. We ate a good little lunch and then headed back down. We were pretty tired but still wanted to save money and we had the time so we walked down the trail and to Aguas Calientes where we waited for our train. 

     The train ride was so pretty through the mountains. Machu Picchu is in the jungle but as you go up the river it becomes more and more dry. It's pretty much a desert which is crazy. We got back to Ollantaytambo and jumped into another colectivo. Took it back to Cusco and it was a beautiful drive again. 

     When we got to Cusco we did some more souvenir shopping now that we were done hiking. Everything is so colorful and beautiful we loved it! The flag of Cusco is a rainbow and rainbow colors are Ivy's favorite and so it was hard for her to resist not buying everything. 

     We slept and were so glad to finally get some sleep because we were so tired after two nights of only getting 5 and 4 hours of sleep. We had hiked so much, done so much but had had plenty of energy. We knew we were blessed with the strength we needed because we look back on it and didn't know how we did it. If we were to ever go back though we figured we’d take the bus up to the top and hike down. But we loved it all, from Cusco to Machu Picchu. It could have went so differently but everything worked perfectly and we knew the Lord was there to help us out. 

     In all our travels we have seen the Lord's hand in some way helping us out. If we look for the tender mercies and the miracles in everyday they seem to happen more. We need to show our gratitude for the Lord and His hand in our lives. He is always there for us even when it doesn't seem like it, we just never see the big picture. The Lord does, and so we need to always trust Him.