Machu picchu!!!!!

I made it and I feel so much better than when I left. So here is the basic outline of the day and then likely unnecessary detail.
4am wake up
5am shuttle
720am train
900am bus
1030am tour starts
1230pm lunch
130pm return to MP
4pm bus ride
5pm dinner
7pm train
9pm shuttle
1030pm arrive at hotel

I awoke at 4 am to my alarm. Brutal. Two snoozes later there is a knock on my door, early breakfast!  I'm ready to go by 425am. The shuttle does not arrive until 5am.

I've fortified myself with medicine but in the likelihood that I would feel terrible I barely speak. I mean it's also 5am. The shuttle is terribly bumpy. The only advantage being that we are loosing altitude. 

**Quick interlude: the differences between a traveling Jewess(me) and a traveling Latina(thereby referred to as her or she since I never caught her name). While I am clutching my hands around anything stable, she takes her hair out of her butterfly clip and spends some time (with BOTH hands) styling it.  While I am silently praying to myself that this shuttle gets us to the train in one piece, she is applying lipstick. While I am moving, mostly due to the jostling of the shuttle, she is literally putting on mascara. She arrives at the train station refreshed ready for her coffee, I tumble out of the shuttle clutching my stomach and debating whether or not to kiss the ground and scream, "land!!!!!!"

I drain two powerade s at the train station at 7am (two many x factors to know if the replenishment of whatever it is powerade has made me feel better or the lack of altitude, increase in water or medicine) and board the train.

I have a seat facing backwards. Ahh! Potential disaster brewing. I ask the three others in my pod of four, who seem to be related if one can switch.  The mom does and I have friends for life (2-3 hours), a Guatemalan mom and her two daughters.  The people next to us are from Columbia and even though I don't understand rapid spanish I very much know that the miss Universe debacle is definitely on their minds. ("Es politico," Was a phrase I heard several times.)

I get off the train and realize I have no idea where I am going or where to meet my tour guide. Luckily/weirdly I hear my middle name Mikaela being shouted and I press her further. Foreigners who know a bit of english feel very funny using my first name thinking that they are insulting me. I try to explain, not LAZY, think lace like on clothing. Rarely does it work. She continued calling me mikaela.

We go up a 25 minute bus ride to the entrance and I begin my tour. We go right to that classic picture spot, about 12 different versions actually and I see a llama. I'm done. Everything else is gravy. The tour lasts two hours and by then it's past noon and I'm hungry. In order to pee or eat you need to exit. All this extra walking leads me to my most active day according to my pedometer.

I find myself talking to a Dutch couple from my tour at lunch and we agree to go back up. Although my back up and there back up and up and up is a bit too much for me so I politely decline and head out on my own. I enjoy simply lying in the grass and staring at the vastness of the mountains. I wonder what it would be like to live here. To wake up and have this view daily. I imagine naming the mountains as a child and seeing them as a constant as I grow. Yep.

The Dutch couple apparently couldn't go as far up as they thought they could so even though we'd said our goodbyes we go back to exploring. As they start rushing I realize that I have no reason to hurry and I tell them I'm gonna stay at the space that I am in and once again say goodbye. While in this spot, underneath a thatched roof and in the shadow of the mountain huayna (spelling?) Picchu I begin a coughing fit. Two gentlemen stop to ask if I'm ok. As one tries to get me water from my bag this conversation ensues.
Guy 1: "where are you from?"
Guy 2: points to my necklace, "the tribe called jew, which we are also apart."
Me: "oh so you are from Israel?"
Guy 2: "no, budapest actually, budapest jew"
Me:"Oh my gosh, my dad and I are going there this summer."
The two guys look at each other and sigh.
Guy 2:"we are running late but quick write down my email address so you can hit me up when you arrive."
Ha, such a strange interchange and I'm not sure if they really wanted to give me an email (particularly because I didn't ask for it) or felt responsible somehow. But either way they gave me a whole bottle of water!!

I finished off the day exploring the residences which is my favorite part of exploring ancient cities, particularly because many typical cities have very little of residences extant. Temples they build to last but residences do not.

I'm now in Aguas calientes a town created about 25 years ago to allow tourists an easy jump off point to the ancient city. I'm awaiting my train and then shuttle and can't wait to reunite with nicole this evening!!!