Machu Picchu, Peru

Day one of the trek started late. First we didn't have enough space in the van for our guide, then we waited for bikes, then we got pulled over, then our bus broke down (and we sat in the street and played cards as our driver hailed a truck to take our bikes, and we ended up back in our choking van to chug ever so slowly up up the canyon. Luckily, the bike ride down the otherside went off without incident (and was a blast), but then, back once again in our van, and immediately a flat tire. Just when we thought we were in the clear, we got a whole different type of obstacle: Protests. The local people were demonstrating because they are not getting enough money for their fuel and cocoa leaves, so they blocked the road in several places with huge rocks so we couldn't pass. Eventually we got past those, and finally arrived to lunch in Santa Maria at 4 pm.
A couple hours later we needed to continue to Santa Teresa, except there was only one road and that too, was blocked. Our guide told us we couldn't take the regular company bus, so we'd have to take the local bus (mini combi). Unfortunately, the locals were coming down the hill demonstrating (abour 40 of them) when we needed to catch the bus and they weren't having it. Our guide told us to stand behind the taxi there (all of this is on the side of a river with nothing else around) and he and two taxi drivers stood face-to-face with this mini-mob having some unpleasant words (to put it nicely) while we were sat frantically trying to hide our memory cards and passports (only really important things) in case they came to us, instead. Luckily, our guide paid them off, we jumped in the cab and he took off, only to find the road blocked again 100 yards ahead, and the mob was back and we were back to square one. Our guide told us we'd have to take the local bus afterwards, but as we were going to get on, they were kicking off another tourist because they didn't want him on there, so back in the taxi we jumped, and they threw him in the back of our cab while our guide paid them off again to let us past this road block. Finally we were out and our taxi took off at the speed of light and did not slow down for the entire rest of the hour plus ride on the tiny winding cliff road. Occasionally we would come up on a combi, not be able to see a foot in front of us because of the dust they created (one even had a guy riding on top), and he would honk and flash at them to pass, only it was not even one lane, and immpossible to pass. It was without a doubt the scariest 3 hours of my life. Wrong place and wrong time to be a tourist for sure.
Finally, we got settled in Santa Teresa, and all was well. We managed to dodge day 3 of the protest because we were hiking, so we spent a few hours in the jungle trekking, crossed a river on a tiny metal platform they pulled back and forth across it, and ended in Aguas Calientes. We stopped by the hot springs there, and had a great dinner and went to bed early before our 3:30 am wake-up!
3:30 am came soon, but we were excited and jumped out of bed to climb 1700 plus steps in the dark to gates of Machu Picchu to be within the first 400 there (to get tickets to climb Waynupicchu). 6 am we were in the door, got a 2 hour tour of Machu Picchu, climbed another 1400 plus steps up Waynupicchu for a downwards view of Machu Picchu- the pictures speak for themselves). It is quite possibly the most spectacular man-mad thing I've ever seen. No, it definitely is. It is indescribable. We just wandered and explored all the nooks and crannies all day, ended at the Inka Bridge (see photos), and went back down the way we came up. We hung out in Aguas Calientes for a few hours (sampling several happy hours- you can bargain them down to almost nothing) before catching our train to bus to bus back to Cusco. FANTASTIC.