Machu Picchu - Day 3

We get up around 5:15am again, and I'm feeling tentatively ok. I have another altitude sickness pill - thanks Duke b-school dude (Joakim) - and then we head out on the trail. This is dubbed as the longest day of the hike, and we are supposed to see a bunch of amazing ruins along the way. At first the hike starts off straight up hill again, and I'm struggling, but it doesn't last long. We stop at the ruins and learn a great deal about the Incas and their amazing building (and astrology) skills. I find it amazing that a culture that never had a written language were so good at building, farming, and astrology. It becomes sad to hear over and over that this Incan culture was wiped out in the 16th century by the Spanish. I get a bit nostalgic at the ruins, and I keep imagining how these functioned when they were alive and vibrant. I take my time on the walks, talking with the other hikers and just enjoying a nice leisure day of walking. I pull out my harmonica at one point and play as we walk - felt amazing. At one of the ruins our guides tell us that it's about an hour or so till our campsite, and we can walk on our own. I'm by myself for much of the second half of this hike, and this last part was especially nice to be alone. Walking through the rain forest and then having a 1000+ drop off at some points was just amazing. At one point I'm looking out across the mountains and I see the most amazing rainbow. It's not a full rainbow but just a little slice out in the distance. At about this same time I hear two people coming down the path very quickly. I tell them not to miss the rainbow, and they stop and enjoy it with me. The girl speaks no English but the guy speak very well. They are both in there 20's, and after seeing the rainbow we walk on together for a bit. I get to talking to the guy and he's from Paraguay and is studying Psychology. I ask him why he's doing that and he says that he's had trouble with cocaine and drinking and so he's helped himself and now he wants to help others. I love this. My younger sister Rictavia (Rickey) is currently studying Psychology so she can also help people with addiction. I tell him about this and he loves hearing it as well, and he tells me that he'll be two years sober on January 17th. At this point I get the chills, because Rickey's sobriety date is also January 17. Intense. I tell him about it and we share a pretty fantastic moment while we're walking on this amazing path in the Peruvian mountains - far from both of our homes. At that moment I really knew I was in the right place at the right time. And I also felt like Rickey was there too. We come up to a fork in the path, and the Paraguayan and his friend go directly to the campsite and I head left to one last ruin before heading in. I was full of life. Loving this third day. I head up to these amazingly beautiful ruins that overlook the valley and our campsite, and sit for a long while and just take it in. After that I head to the campsite, clean up, and enjoy our last night together. Here are some great pics from day three :)

Oh - forgot to mention that I got lost walking from the last ruin to the campsite. Ended up walking through this agricultural college, which had some cool species on display - pics below.