Morray, Machu Picchu, Copacabana & more!

 
                                                                                   So we have been on the go now for officially over a week since I left the volunteer house.  First was Morray, which is located about two hours outside of Cusco.  There were about eleven of us (people from the volunteer house) that went.  We hired a van and were on our way on mostly dirt roads.  I wasn't expecting the view we had, but it was glorious.  

Morray was a place where the Inca's tested agriculture.  It was a sort of laboratory where they could test different crops to see what the best conditions were to grow.  It is a series of circles, lowering one by one into a circular centre.  We decided to take a couple of bottles of wine and some food and have a picnic right in the centre.  It was pretty amazing, and for really cheap too!  The total cost per person was under 10 US dollars.  Can't really go wrong can you!

Our next stop was Machu Picchu and friends I can't tell you how amazing this place really is.  We traveled through the night, from a bus to wait in a line for a van.  From the van, to wait in a line for a train.  From the train to another van, and then finally the hostel in a little sleepy town called Aguas Calientes.  We went right to bed, because our alarm was set for 3:45am.  We waited in line to catch one of the first buses up to Machu Picchu.  There are a ton of tourists, which you would think would ruin the experience, but it really didn't.  

The Mercedes Benz buses took us up the mountain, driving in an S pattern all the way up.  The view was amazing, clouds surrounding Andean mountains.  When we got to the top there was another line.  We managed to get our ticket to climb Waynapicchu.. YES!  There are only 400 people per day allowed to climb and two times, 7am and 10am.  After waiting in yet another line, we were allowed to climb Waynapicchu.  It was out of a movie.. namely Indiana Jones.  The path was all stone steps, leading directly up the mountain.  It was hard, and strenuous but only lasted for about an hour.  When we got to the top, we watched the clouds all around us start to part and we got a glimpse of the ruins.  Apparently high priests and priestesses lived on this mountain.  Their houses were still in tact and you could go into them.  

Our guided tour started at 10:30am so we had to bust down the mountain as fast as we could and find our guide.  This tour, I thought was going to be boring but proved to be really interesting. Our guide knew all sorts of facts, stories, legends about this amazing, mysterious place.  In fact Machu Picchu isn't actually the name of the ruins, it's the name of the adjacent mountain.  No one actually knows the name of the ruins, that's why they are considered such a mystery.  He walked us through every building, rock, pebble and stone and told us what the meaning of everything was.  If you turn a picture of the ruins sideways you actually see a picture of an Inca man's face and if you hold it upright you can see a condor (a large bird of Peru, which has certain spiritual meaning).  There was everything from school houses, to guest houses, to main quarters which held royalty and had the only private bathroom.  There were plaza's and places to grow crops.  The water to this day still filters in from the mountains and is so clean you can still drink it.  Llamas grazed the open fields and they were so friendly and made the atmosphere that much better.  Apparently this was a complete functioning culture with no currency involved.  Instead they traded what they had with each other.  If one village grew mais (corn) and the other village specialized in spiritual ceremonies, they would trade.  How amazing!  We could learn a thing or two.  
 
I took a ton of pictures, but honestly speaking my pictures do no justice to what we saw.  This place is a true masterpiece.  Just to touch the stones, you felt this presence or energy that was unlike anything I've ever experienced.  I dreamt of this place two years ago.  I dreamt of going to Machu Picchu and watching the sun rise and there I was standing at the top of it all, taking deep breaths, trying not to let my knees wobble to much.  I MADE IT!  It was such an overwhelming feeling to be there.  I felt so fortunate that my dream actually came true.

We left Cusco on Friday night to come to Copacobana with a good friend I met at the volunteer house.  Copacobana is a small town off the coast of Lake Titicaca on the Bolivian side.  That's right friends, I am in Bolivia.  Copacobana was a really friendly village and really cheap.  We stayed in a hostel for a couple of US dollars a night.  We took a day tour to the islands, Isla del Sol.  This place is where the sun was apparently born.  It had great views, and was 2 US dollars to get there and back.  We made friends with a native to the Isla del Sol, he must of been 80 plus years old and lived on the top of the mountain on the island.  It was really relaxing to be in Copacobana, definitely worth hitting up for no more than a day or two.  

We caught a bus this morning to La Paz, one of the main cities in Bolivia.  We decided to go all out and spend a whopping 30 US on a hotel.  It's pretty expensive here, which we didn't plan for.  The city is dirty, scary and not top on my list of the places we have been to date.  The bus operator told us to watch our "mochillas" (backpacks) very carefully.  It's not somewhere you would want to be alone or at night.  We picked a fancier hotel.  Get this, our hotel room has it's own bathroom!!!!!! AND AND, TOILET PAPER!  WOW.  We also have wifi in our rooms (hence the long blog post) and cable tv where Mark currently watches Silence of the Lambs with sub titles.  We are resting here for the next couple of days before we head to the salt flats in Uyuni.  

Should be interesting!
I'll keep you all posted.