So I am in Machu Picchu with a whole bunch a hikers/backpackers. We wake up at the very early and ridiculous time of 3:30 am to be out the hostel by 4:00 am for the hour and half walk to Machu Picchu. You have to be one of the first 400 people to be able to actually climb Machu Picchi itself. As a result, people get there at the ass crack of dawn in order to get thier necessary stamp.
When I tell you that I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
So we walking, and its raining, and its dark - which is fine. Someone in the backbackers group let me borrow a rain poncho when it was clear that I was not ready for this adventure. I am following the people who got flashlights attached to thier forheads for the little light it provides. With my glasses foggin up I need as much help as possible. But again - its fine. I´m not complaining. Gotta thug it out with the backpackers.Then the mountain part of the walk starts. I was like what is this incline. Nobody warned me. And then when it kept going I realized that we were going all the way up. A mountain. Sigh. Ok. Gotta thug it out.
Now I am a little overweight, which I can deal with. I can suck it up. But currently I am also sick with some kind of flu stomach thing going around at my spanish school and on these 30 cent antibiotics that you can get with no prescription but is stronger then you would get in the US. If I had to be completly honest I would say that the details that follow have 25% to do with my weight and 75% to do with my being sick. And it goes as such.
It took me for-ev-er to get up the mountain. I damn near passed out twice and had three/four 10 minute coughing sessions. No lie. It was so bad that when the old lady passed me I didn't even care. I thought someone was going to have to scrap me off the side of the mountain becuase I was going to pass out and fall to my death. That and my new found fear of heights - clutching to every rock convinced I was going to slip and die to the point of irrationality. My only wish was that I didn't pass out. It could take hours and I did not care. But how embarrassing would it be to be the the fool who passed out on the mountain.
Now I may be voluptuous (wink), sick, and afraid of heights but I am not lacking in spunk or heart.I knew I was going to somehow make it up. But there was a point where my confidence was waning. I was sitting for one of my many rest or coughing session (can´t remember which) and I looked up. And I realized that I was with the cloads. I thought I was walking through mist. But I was with the cloads. How amazing is that? How many people get to see that? I am so high up already. I gotta go the rest of the way. So I pray to God for some strength and kept it moving. Not concerned about what others will think or how long it would take me. I judge myself by my own standards. And this girl, who never thought she would see a mountain other then driving by one in a car, climbed one. I reached for the sky and touched the mist of the cloads. And that's amazing.
O and so was Machu Picchu. (lol - thou I certainly was not one of the first 400 people but I also did not care - I climbed enough mountains for a day and proved what I needed to to myself).
E
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