We made it to Machu Picchu yesterday...but more importantly, we made it back! The trip yesterday, although we enjoyed visiting the site, was more than difficult. We were picked up at our hostel in Cusco at 5am by our tour operator; no problem there. But soon, we realized that there had been some miscommunications about the travel arrangements. We thought the taxi driver was taking us to a bus station about 5 minutes away, but instead, he was driving us to meet a train that would stop about an hour and a half away. So as soon as we figured out where he was taking us, things were peachy. The drive was beautiful; we drove through the foggy Urubamba Valley, and our friendly driver pointed out sights along the way to Ollantaytambo. He also stopped to look for part of his car along the way; evidently he'd lost a piece the day before. Also, taxi drivers in Peru don't often feel the need to only drive on the correct side of the road- I'd say that for the most part, we drove on either the left-hand side, or on the dividing line.

So, finally we arrived at the train station. When the train pulled into the city of Aguas Calientes (at the base of Machu Picchu), we looked at our itinerary for the trip, and it said that a representative of our tour operator was to meet us at the train and then take us on a bus to the ruins. Well, we got off the train, and nobody was there to meet us. We waited an hour, had some tea at a local cafe, and then decided to take matters into our own hands. Since I had been to Machu Picchu before, I knew where to catch the bus, and we figured that maybe we'd meet our guide at the entrance to the ruins. Maybe he'd be holding a sign with our names on it? Maybe he'd have a sign or shirt with the tour operator name on it? Not so. We got the entrance, and in the swarms of people, we could see no one looking for us, or calling our names. Again, we just decided we'd go without a guide, and entered the Incan sacred city.

We wandered around for an hour or so, taking awesome photos (which I will post soon, I promise), and then stopped to take a rest in the shade of one of the huge stone buildings. No sooner had we sat down, when a woman came around the bend calling, "Ka-ter-een? Luana?" Surprised to hear our names, we of course responded... only then to be scolded and yelled at by this strange woman, who apparently was another guide with our tour operator. She kept demanding in broken English to know where we had been and why we hadn't found our tour group. When I responded (in Spanish, mind you) that we had waited a very long time for our guide, she completely ignored what I had said, and insisted that we return to the entrance to meet our guide. Offended and slightly humiliated, we raced back to the entrance. Out of breath and annoyed, we discovered that our guide had already gone into the ruins. By this point, we were ready to simply continue the day without a guide (many people go without guides), but for some reason, the people we spoke with at the entrance wouldn't hear of it. So, we ended up tagging along with another tour.

The tour, although we were possibly not in the best mindset, was enjoyable. I learned a lot of the history of the site, and met some interesting people. Then, after a bit of free time exploring, we decided to head out. We took the bus back to Aguas Calientes, where we discovered that we had about 7 hours to kill before our train would leave. So, we did some browsing of artisan markets, ate some dinner, and then...waited. Later, the same woman who had yelled at us in the ruins came up and reminded us as if we were children that our train would leave at 8, that we had to be there at least 30 minutes early, and to please, please not forget this time. Annoying. Anyway, we waited at the intersection where the train had stopped that morning, so that we'd see the train as it arrived. Luana, however, was wondering if the train would really come to the same place as it had dropped us off. I, thinking that the town was too small to be able to miss seeing a train, said that I was sure we'd see or hear it as it arrived. So, at about five minutes to 8, some man came to us and asked if we were waiting for the train. When we said yes, he looked surprised and said that we'd better get to the train station. Train station? Oh yes, the one that is halfway across town? So, of course, we didn't know where we were going, but started running through the town, asking people we passed to point us in the right direction. We knew that if we missed this train, we'd have to spend the night there, and would possibly miss our flight the next day. So, we ran faster. Finally, we made it onto the train (which actually didn't move for another 15 minutes).

About 30 minutes later, the train stopped. It was completely dark (and really cold), and we couldn't tell if we had stopped at a station or not. Then another train passed us, and we figured we had stopped because of the other train for some reason. The other train passed by, we heard our train's engine start, and then heard a terrible, crunching, mechanical noise coming from our train. Then, all the lights went out. We proceeded to sit, in the dark, in the middle of nowhere for about 30 minutes. Nobody came to explain the delay, and then suddenly, we started moving again. Our train still didn't sound like it was working well.

Anyway, to finish this long story, we didn't get back to our hostel until after midnight, after a terrifying ride with our taxi driver (same one from that morning), and have been sleeping and recovering ever since. Whew.

In a few hours, we'll be headed to the airport to fly back to Lima, and then to Santiago. Wish us luck!