O.K., so the two sick docs (married) are troopers and we leave. We being the two troopers, our pharmacist and her doc/husband, and I. Jorge has arranged our ride who, typical of the Peruano drivers we have met, is punctual ...
We are taken to the place where we will take a bus( the recent mud/landslides have taken
out large portions of the train tracks). The bus will then take us to the train bound for the town of Aguas Calientes where we shall stay the afternoon and one night.
As things seem to change here (where there is no clinic, there is suddenly a clinic; where
there wasn't a road/there is a road (or vice versa)) . Since the taxis could go only to the end of the alley, we are told that then we shall have to walk to the bus station. Today, however, we can pull right up. We're happy to be driving straight there. We board the bus. Across the aisle from me is a youngish Peruvian doctor and we chat and exchange med system info -- we then talk Machu Picchu and he laughs -- he's around 40, has lived in Peru all his life, and has never seen it. I tell him it's a cliché--
you know, the New Yorkers who've never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State
Building.
He tells me a fascinating bit of info re the Incas who built it before the invention of the wheel. In order to haul the countless stones up the twisting roads, working within low oxygen levels, etc., they consumed a whole lot of coca (cocaine) leaves -- he said Machu Picchu would
never have been built without coca. Makes sense.
We arrive at the outdoor station and are called for our train. My doc friend had arranged the train from the US. Great choice. She opted for the fancier train which has a glass roof and huge windows which allow us
to see this AMAZING panorama -- Andes, waterfalls, people walking along the Inca Trail,
lush vegetation -- it is a ride in Disney World. Arrive Aguas Calientes and three of us decide to take the last bus out and last bus back to the site rather than wait till tomorrow. I have always
thought that when I got to see MP, I would want to go late so I wouldn't be amongst crowds of tourists -- also, I have always wanted to see the sun set there.
So, we scramble running frantically all around the streets of Aguas Calientes looking for a place to change and take out money for the bus and entrance tickets to the site. The bus tickets have to be purchased here in town in American dollars -- the MP tickets are only
sold in soles. ¡Qué horror!
Time is ticking away-- the last bus leaves at 3:30 -- no cash...
There is a woman with us who came to meet us since she's arranging for our guide tomorrow. She never leaves our side -- she wants us to
see MP! Finally, one of the docs comes up with a credit card that works. We're at a ATM machine. At 3:25 pm she runs away. Oh, no.
A few minutes later, however, she returns to say she has convinced the bus driver to wait for us!
We board -- we're the only ones on it -- it's 3:40 pm -- we wait. Driver's seat is empty.
I step to the door of the bus and right there, three Peruanos, one with a big sandwich he's about to consume. I ask him in Spanish if he would consider driving up now -- the ride is 25 minutes and we'll only have less than an hour and a half if we leave RIGHT NOW.
He doesn't answer, parts with his friends, slowly wraps his sandwich in a napkin, puts it in a storage box on the dash -- and we're moving!
Arrive Macchu Pichu. We pass through the ticket entrance and walk in front of the famous
luxury hotel, El Sanctuario, (on the premises and costs $1,000 American dollars a night.
Honest.
We get our passports stamped with these cute designs of MP (not a requirement -- just fun thing) and I ask the men at the counter "Si sólo tuvieran una hora y pico aquí , qué
verían hoy (if you had only a bit over an hour here, what would you see today?). One ranger tells us to go to the "Templo de las Ventanas" -- . We start out, and he sees our unsure
steps, he graciously jumps out in front of us, and says he'll lead us there. I fall behind the others; how can I not take photos? I'm surrounded 360º and from earth to sky by absolute
wonder.
We meet back up -- I see a group of students on the plateau just beneath me, stretched out on their back, forming a circle, some with outstretched arms reaching to the sky and decide to do the same from my plateau. I stretch out, put my backpack under my head and stare up and out -- mountians, trees, and a sky I feel I can touch -- feel like I'm pleasantly high and maybe floating -- filled with calm. The sky is a clear, clear, bright, blue enhanced by lacy-edged clouds forming and slowly floating.
After I don't know how long, I hear my friends calling me from another platform and walk up stone stairs to meet them. We sit on a stone ledge and watch the sun fall --- we gaze on beautiful purple/blue-backed swallows swooping and turning and diving onto a quadrangle of grass just below us -- they're going for their "swallow dinner" of insects.
Head back having made plans with one of our young recently graduated docs whom I miraculously met turning a corner as I was descending a set of steps.
Go to dinner at Lindo Indio and is it ever "lindo"! (for $10-$15 American dollars we have incredible healthy and fresh dinners -- (mine: chicken with fresh mango sauce, rice, potatoes, grilled tomatoes, string beans, white Peruvian wine, and a dessert of fresh, home-made passion-fruit ice cream).
Go to sleep around 10:30 -- awakened at 11:15 by loud phone rings -- ¡Diga! (Yes, hello)
I manage. The desk tells me I have a call. Oh, gosh -- some emergency?
No. It's the Guide Agency wanting to know if "I know the time we're leaving in the morning." So pissed off, I don't fall back to sleep -- try and try-- my really deep spasmodic
coughs keep me up until 4 or so.
Get up, shower with hot (yea) water, and pack up for guided tour.
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