Train Strike

Of course on the 6th of December the small town on Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu decides to have a train strike. Tomorrow we may have to walk 5 hours to a neighboring town to be able to catch a bus back to cusco. Anyways, we have finished our hike and had a really incredible day in Machu Picchu.
We started out trek in a little town called Mollepata where we met some fellow hikers. ALthough, these people were suckered into hiring guides, porters, cooks, and horses. You should have seen there faces when we told them that we were doing the same hike for free. They were all probably paying about $500 for 4 to 6 days. Anyways, we started by walking through a bunch of peoples farms where everyone was pointing us in the right direction. For the first day we walked for about 7 hours, all was good except for being taxed in the middle of nowhere by a 15 year old boy. He told us it was the tax for passing through his property. It really felt like we were living in Robin Hoods time passing through Shirewood Forrest. It really wasnt a problem since it only cost about 30 cents. That night we camped in a very beautiful spot on a farm between 2 gigantic mountains.
The 2nd day we had to go over the pass which was about 16,000 feet. All the while we had to carry rocks to give to the Salkantay god for letting us cross the pass safely. We walked for about 10 hours this day and were prepared to sleep in a river if need be. But instead we found this great family and we were able to camp in their yard next to lush green mountains among chickens, horses, and pigs.
On the 3rd day we had a really weird day, possibly one of the most random we´ve had the whole trip. We had to wake up at 5 in the morning and start walking to be able to catch a train in town. We walked down down and down to this town called La Playa (It had no beach) where we were starving and bought eggs in a restaurant but had to cook them ourselves. Then we hurried to catch a bus, which was no bus. It was a huge pickup truck which took us to another town. He dropped us off at a 200 foot wide roaring river, which we had to cross sitting in a basket while pulling on a rope (with both of us and our bags). At this point we were running late for the train, so we told the next bus-pick up truck driver we had to reach the train. This time we stood in the back while being pelted with rain as the driver rushed for the plant. Finally we got to the station with 30 seconds to spare, where we made it to the town we are now stuck in. Today we went to Machu Picchu, which i must say that everyone needs to come see how amazing this place is for themselves. Thanks for all the birthday wishes and we will be back in cusco with the same phone number as before for a couple of days.