When you look at photos of Machu Picchu you often see a large steep lump of granite in the background. At a glance, it just looks like a rock that perhaps only rock climbers could reach the top of. However, that rock is actually Huayna Picchu (or Wayna Picchu) meaning "Young Peak" in Quechua is a sacred mountain for the Incas. In fact, even though you cannot see it in photos, there are ancient terraces on the face of it and even a few buildings. And yes, that is amazing and even when you see it you still can't believe that someone could accomplish it. Oh, and did I mention how steep it is? Did I mention that there is a trail that appears to go vertically right up the side? Well, there is, and that trail is how you climb Huayna Picchu from the ruins and Machu Picchu.

Huayna Picchu with Machu Picchu in foreground.

How do you enjoy a town that is really little more than a tourist stop? Keep looking up. If you want a great place to stay a few nights near Machu Piccu, Aguas Calientes really isn't it, you are much better off in Ollantaytambo, a surprisingly amazing town.

My travel companion and I arrived in Aguas Calientes Peru at about 11pm via the 20:35 Backpacker train from Ollantaytambo. The train stops right in the center of town on the main street, which is actually the train tracks. We got off the train, walked about 50 feet and saw our hostal,the Hostal Machu Piccu.

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to notice that I haven't made a post to this blog since I left Egypt. One of the reasons is that I have been extremely busy doing things like, moving back to the US, getting all my crap out of storage, finding an apartment, getting a new job and all the other things required to survive. The other reason is that I have to change my mindset as to what is worthy to write about. In Egypt things were easy. Everyday there was something new happening that I was sure would entertain the casual reader. (sheep in the back of a car for example). However, now that I am back in the U.S. and living in Southern California, things just don't seem to be as important on a day to day basis.

I wrote this before I left Cairo, but didn’t post it until now. Something about it just doesn’t seem right, but I figure if I don’t post it now, it will never happen. Here it is, an overly poetic attempt.

----------
December 21, 2007
Since I arrived I have been trying to somehow capture the essence of the city so that those reading my posts, viewing my photos or watching my videos could somehow get a feel for what it is like here. Nonetheless, I feel this is simply not possible.

When faced with the minor inconveniences that are a matter of daily life in Cairo it's nice to see the humorous side of things.

Recently we have experienced a few instances of the water suddenly being cut off. The first incident occured during my mother's visit just after we spent the morning touring the pyramids around 1pm (i.e., we were disgusting after walking in the desert surrounded by camels). When we discovered it was off we asked our bowab (doorman) who said it would be back in an hour so we went ahead with our trip to Coptic Cairo assuming it would be working when we returned. When we arrived around 6pm the water was still not working and the bowab again told us an hour. After another hour with no water we called our landlord who explained that there was an outage affecting a large portion of Cairo and he estimated it may take anywhere from a few hours to a day to fix. He also assured us that the bowab had no way of knowing how long it would take and his estimates were invalid. We were a little perplexed how the landlord got this information from the water department so late in the evening, but we took it at face value and prayed for the best.

One of the greatest things about Egypt is there is always something you haven't seen yet. This comes in really handy when friends or relatives visit, because it means you aren’t forced to visit the same places for a second or third time. Recently my mother came all the way from Oregon to visit and it gave me a last chance to see a few things for the last time and a few things for the first time. The first time I visited the Pyramids at Giza I left feeling a bit disappointed. Things felt rushed and overly commercialized, there was a lot of hassling and it just didn’t live up to my expectations. When I found out my mother was coming to visit one of the first thoughts was "oh man.. I have to visit Giza again!". Fortunately my second trip was much more memorable than the first. It is nice to take your time and enjoy everything around you.

Before I arrived in Cairo last April I imagined a place that was dry and hot year round. I had heard stories that the summer heat was un-bearable and that the locals all fled town to escape it. Actually, many of the privileged locals did flee town, a fact that isn’t easily lost on those driving around Zamalek in the summertime. However, it turns out that the seasons here are rather distinct. When we first arrived in April the weather was amazing, it was about 75F during the day and the evenings didn't drop much below 65F. Aside from the occasional dust storm, it was very similar to southern California at that time of year. Summer began to take over around May, and soon the notorious summer heat was showing itself. Yes, it was definitely hot, but it really wasn't as bad as I expected. Summer in Cairo isn't really that much hotter than a heat wave in LA, or even in Portland for that matter. I remember plenty of 100 plus days during my childhood. The main difference is that in Cairo the air is much more polluted and there is rarely a breeze, which makes it difficult to escape the heat without A/C. Now that we are deep into Autumn, the weather is getting fairly cold.

Traveling back from Luxor I found this advertisement in the Egypt Air in-flight magazine. I don't know about you, but normally when I see an advertisement for food, it looks better in the photo than in real life. In this case, if this is better than the real thing I fear this restaurant has some serious problems. Apparently they not only utilize their marketing budget for airline magazines, but also giant billboards, I saw the same photo in Mohandiseen on the way home from class.

Trains rule just about everywhere and Egypt is no exception. If you can muster up $60 to take the 13 hour sleeper train from Cairo to Aswan I highly recommend it. The sleeper cars consist of 2 person sleepers. Each sleeper has a 3 person seat which converts into 2 bunk beds. It also contains a small sink so that you don't need to use the shared bathroom for those little nighty night things, like flossing and washing your face. They provide both dinner and breakfast with the fare, but drinks cost extra as is customary in Egypt. The food was edible and what you might expect for train food. I should say that it was better than some airline food I have had (read China Airlines). Me and the people I was traveling with really enjoyed this trip. The train was very smooth and quiet and we all had one of the best night sleeps in months.

The interesting thing about blogs is that people seem to fixate their attention on the things you think are the least important. This is the one of the reasons that I don't post any political content here. After all, if I get more feedback about my inability to find dental floss, than who knows what will happen if I say, well... like I said, no politics.

Perhaps I have gotten so much feedback on the dental floss fiasco because I haven't posted anything about all the other things I have done recently. Such as visiting Sinai and seeing St. Catherine's Monestary, hitting up the sun and nightlife of Sharm Al-Sheik or just enjoying Cairo and its many neighborhoods. My excuse for that is studying..cough cough..but I will share some things soon. In the meantime, please take a look at some of the photos I posted.

So that I can ease the minds of everyone who read my last post (big thanks to my fans for actually reading this) I would like to announce that I was able to find dental floss in Cairo. It took about 3 grocery stores and 3 pharmacies, but it happened. At the time I bought all the floss they had (2 packs) so we will see what happens when I need a refill.