macho pee-chew

Finally, our big day arrived . . . the day we were going to visit Machu Picchu! (Or macho pee-chew, as the kids call it). We woke up feeling optimistic for so many reasons. We had all managed to avoid altitude sickness and were acclimating well. We’d had a full night’s sleep at a nice hotel. We’d done a ‘’practice run” at some other ruins and it had gone well. We did a morning prayer and meditation for good attitudes and calm hearts. We at a protein-rich breakfast. So many high hopes. Well, friends, as you know, pride cometh before a fall, and this day turned out to be a bit of a challenge. For one, the weather forecast did me wrong. I had us dressed for cool, rainy weather and it was blazin’ hot up there. My kids do not do so well in full sun . . . they are like vampires, except that instead of glittering, they just throw tantrums. Three tantrums were thrown before we had even entered the gates to Machu Picchu. Two of them were by children. After some threats encouragement, the kids recalibrated and we entered the gates to see the beauty of Machu Picchu. I think you can see the awe in Karis’s spider man pose. These kids TOTALLY got it. Not gonna lie, that first hour was rough. It was crowded and hot and we had to climb eleventy-million steps to get to the prime photo location, only to have the glaring sun cast shadows and squinty faces on every photo. But beyond the tantrums and the heat . . . the place really was breathtaking. It’s absolutely impossible to do it justice with pictures. The ruins are amazing, of course, by the surrounding mountains dipping up into the clouds – it’s just insanely beautiful. There were a lot of precipices from which children could fall to their death. Having a panic attack every few minutes about that fact kind of killed the zen of the environment for me. We didn’t get a guide because I didn’t think my kids would have the patience to stop and listen every few feet, which I think was the right decision. I tried my best to act as tour guide but I probably could have prepared a little more. They had a lot of questions that I couldn’t answer. These ruins are pretty enormous – it was several hours of walking to reach the perimeter. We took lots of breaks where we could find shade, and fed the kids a steady diet of chocolate-covered espresso beans. Yeah. This. There was a lot of this. And this. Lots of locals giving knuckles and taking picture of the black kids. Yeesh. More on that in another post. In an effort to keep the kids moving, we let each of them choose an area of the ruins that they specifically wanted to visit. India chose looking at the llamas. Must. Climb. To. Llamas. Or are those alpacas? I’m not sure of the difference beyond knowing that Jafta thinks alpacas are delicious. The kids had fun playing hide-and-seek in the ruins. This was a less happy moment. I sort of felt the same way. We finally made it around the whole site, and the kids were in better spirits. Near the exit, Karis and India found a platform they deemed a stage and did a little performance from Annie. Yes, Karis is not wearing pants. Yes, it means what you think it means. Goodbye, Machu Picchu! We did it! I’m so glad we did.