Machu Pichu - Day 8

Saturday morning I woke to just one band-aid on Lily's gapping wound.  Something about the humidity and her unwashed little face wouldn't let the band-aids stay on long.  So I banaged her up again adding a layer of white medical tape (That was all peeling off by the end of  lunch.)  We  lost Grandma on our way back to the train but thankfully located her before our train departed.  We retraced our path back up the steep road grateful that the sun was shining brightly in a blue sky.  Our views would be spectacular.  Marilyn took Mom and the less arduous lower circuit trail since she had done the upper circuit on her own yesterday.  We were grateful that mom would have one on one attention as there are thousands of steps and too many places where she might slip, stumble, or fall.  Oswaldo took the rest of us on the extensive upper circuit.  Each time we passed a guide he had to explain why we had a group of 9 including him when the limit was 8.  They were never appeased but we just continued on our way.  While there were other tourists it was not crowded in any sense.  I was able to get pictures of most scenes without strangers in the view.  Our tour lasted about 3 hours and covered most all of the currently accessible paths. 

Natali is being sneazed on right here.

From one of the typical photo spots with a commanding view of the plaza Andrew noticed some movement on small terrace far below on the west side.  They were too big to be the viscachas we expected to see.  Through his binoculars we were thrilled to identify a family of coati.  Andrew took great pleasure in pointing them out to several other tourists.  Everyone has seen iconic pictures of Machu Picchu which makes descriptions seem wholly inadequate.  The ruins would be memorable anywhere, but at the top of a nearly vertical mountain with the roaring Urubamba snaking around the narrow peninsula a thousand feet below the scene is simultaneously sublimely beautiful and awe inspiring.  Add in the jagged promontory of Huayna Picchu or Young Mountain towering just to the north and then ring the view 360 degrees with peaks ranging from 10-18,000 feet a few of which are snow-covered looking down on tropical forests and well, you have the kind of place millions of people from the entire globe have spent great sums of money and precious time to see for themselves.  A guide is necessary to appreciate the finer points and details but it is easy to get distracted just looking and taking pictures.  The girls were ecstatic when the lawn mowing llamas approached and we laughed when they spit in their direction.  Unfortunately COVID had closed the trails to both Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu Mountain so we could only admire them from below.  We eventually caught up with mom and shared the last few sights together before catching the bus again.  

We were the only guests at a very nice hotel restaurant built literally against the rock of the mountain.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quinoa soup and the lomo saltado looked amazing right up until I put it in my mouth.  I’ve never tried to eat tougher meat.  I eventually gave up and had to spit a couple of bites out after chewing for a minute.  I could not cut the pieces with the knife and after my past experiences I didn’t want to try to swallow them whole—I’m too good a choking.  Desert was a small plate of fresh fruit—mostly pineapple and papaya.  I don’t really like papaya but I ate mine so that there was at least one plate left on the table that didn’t just look like a plate full of papaya in the end. 

A couple of hours of free time in Aguas Calientes is sufficient to walk most of the village that exists to serve the tourists.  There’s a small market area where we let each of the kids pick a souvenir and then I half-heartedly negotiated before overpaying.  T-shirts, soccer jerseys, and llama paraphernalia were the popular choices.  We tried Inca Cola which we decided tasted too much like bubble gum.  It slapped weird.  That phrase was a joke for the trip. The cool phrase is "hits different" but I kept saing slaps weird just to bug the teens.  It was finally decided that hits different is for something good and slaps weird is for something unique but not great.  Andrew took the Inka Cola bottle and used it to pet a mangy stray dog that was following us around.

We left mom to explore the market while we walked quickly over to the main square for a picture with the Manco Inca statue.  The clinic wasn’t open on Saturday so any further attention for Bob would have to wait until Cusco.  We gathered our luggage and returned to the station for our departure.  The long train ride back found kids back on devices, reading, or playing.  Emily used this time to play with all the new llamas - she even used the llama bandanas as blakets.At one point I looked over and realized that mom was crying.  Her heart was rent by the poverty we were passing and she was regretting not having shared her testimony directly with Francisco.  I got up and found the conductor and told him how we had met Francisco and wanted to contact him via social media.  Would he tell us Francisco’s last name?  Turns out the other conductor, Jared, was a returned missionary and Francisco lives in his ward so he knew he was being taught.  He gave me his name and phone number so I have been able to contact Francisco via Whatsapp after returning home.  The spirit will lead us when we allow it to.  The train gains elevation steadily but my body had adjusted well and I feel good even at 11,000.  Back in Cusco the kids wanted pizza again so I return for takeout. I help eat the pizza this time and it is quite good.  The Hawaiian pizza has a sweet glaze that makes it taste almost like a dessert pizza.  

Our guide went out of his way to contact a medical friend to get his hands on some strei-strips for Lily's chin.  It was a long day and our room was so cold.  I bundled Lily up in her bed to get her warmed up.  She really needed to get clean but the thought of getting wet was just too cold of a thought so I let her stay warm and dirty.  Natali texted us from her room concerned about Grandma’s labored breathing.  My mom was a trooper and hung in there every step of the way though I know the effort exerted a toll on her body.