On the morning of January 7, Josh and I decided to take a trip. It just happened that others were planning to be in the exact same parts of the world at the exact same time, even using the same small transport vehicle, so it seemed like it should work. We found our way to the airport, we flew out to Houston. There, we randomly spotted Logan and asked if he wanted to come along. He agreed. After eating our last Chinese (food) at Panda Express for months, we found the first plane we could heading internationally. Peru bound, we were. We were leaving on a jet plane, we didn’t know when we’d be back again. Oh, babes, we hated to go.
After 7 hours of personal televisions and interesting talks with co-passengers, we arrived in Lima. From there, we decided Cuzco (Cusco) would be a prime welcoming city for us, and that Machu Picchu would probably enjoy our presence. After a 6 hour layover in Lima, we flew out to Cuzco at 5:35, arriving there about 6:25. Immediately on exiting the airport, we picked up a taxi, and went straight to Ollaytantambo. From there, we took the 2 hour, incredibly overpriced train ticket solamente for tourists. A round trip for tourists is 102-122 dollars, while the local transport has a round trip ticket consisting of less than 9 dollars. The only way to Machu Picchu is by train to Aguas Calientes (which has no cars, only buses to Machu). Oh well, we were Americans just waiting to spend as much money as possible.
We arrived in Aguas Calientes by early afternoon. Being a little weary from traveling non-stop for 16 hours (what a joke), we decided to find a hostel. After having a couple friendly people latch onto us, who interestingly enough also owned hostels, we picked the cheapest one we could. We soon walked to his hostel, only to find out it is sold out. Fair enough. He pointed to his friends hostel, and we asked there for lodging. The man there asked a much lower price than the previous “gentleman”, so we said yes. Oh, my friends, how could we not? The suite was fantastic. It had direct tv, personal beds (in fact, it was technically a hotel), hot showers, and lights! But, to be fair, the left side of the television had a very strong blue tint, the personal beds had bedbugs (to which I happened to be the one to find out), the shower handle had a gathering of unidentifiable hair under the handle, and there were no lights when we entered the room. Thankfully, Fernando (at least that was my nickname for him) came in and put in a light bulb. What kings we were.
That evening, we went to the natural hot springs (hence the name of the town, Aguas Calientes). They should have named the town, Warm Springs Where There Are Too Many People And Probably Visible Disease And When Three Gringos Don’t Bring Shorts They Strip To Their Boxers And Get Laughed At But Love It. After drying ourselves from nature, we followed a concrete recommendation from people from Ohio, and caminared to the Indio Feliz. We saw the prices for the menu, but hey, what’s 24 dollars for a meal when we’re filthy and sticky rich? It’s a good thing we stayed, because that goes down easily as one of the top 5 best meals I’ve ever had. Boy, we weren’t even Indian, but we were happy!
I realize this is getting long, so from now on I will use quick sentences to keep your attention rapt. From Cuzco, we took 4 buses. To Santiago. The first was an easy. Overnight bus for 11. Hours, the next was a. Hard 6 hours, the. Next was technically a taxi. Over the border, and. The next was a 30 hour. Bus ride to finish. In our beloved, Santiago. Ok, short. Sentences are. Over with. Without having internet for 30 hours, we had left it with Aaron that we would wait at the bus station for them to pick us up at. Little did we know, he didn’t plan to come at all, but to stay at his place of residence. Weirdly enough, this bus station had no internet until 10 a.m., and it was 5:30 when we arrived. Praise the Lord for cool security guards who snuck us into a closed part of a mall, and gave us the password to steal internet from a Kodak photo store. There was when we found out that we really weren’t being picked up, but it would all work out. Eventually we taxied to our friends, and began part dos of our adventure, which would be the hardest trip of our life, but eventually, many years later, would make us revolutionary idols in Argentina and Chile, even if we would never see Josh again because we left him in a small town prison
nice shirt!
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