The Lost City of the Incas

Date of events depicted: 10 May 2012

Two Crazy Chicks Productions, in association with WorldWild PhotoGraphics and What Am I Going to Tell Your Mother? Productions, is proud to present episode 1 of The Adventures of Yumiko and Eden in Peru…   

In the predawn darkness, Miko, Eden, and 500 other hardy, sleep-deprived souls determined to see the sunrise at Machu Picchu board the buses that ferry tourists from the town of Aguas Calientes up a steep, winding dirt road to the Lost City of the Incas.

Our intrepid heroines, bleary-eyed and breathing heavily in the thin air, pass through the entrance gate and hike to the Caretaker’s Hut. They watch, entranced, as the first rays of the sun touch the surrounding mountains and caress the polished stone walls and neatly groomed terraces of the citadel. It is a spectacular, almost surreal sight, though the landscape crew – three llamas – seems unimpressed, just as jaded as they were the previous evening when our dynamic duo took in the sunset from the same vantage point.

By late morning, the mist that had risen from the Urubamba River far below has burned away and the ruins are teeming with thousands of people. Miko and Eden sweep their admiring gazes over the exquisite stonework of the temples, plazas, and houses one last time before returning to Aguas Calientes to await their train to Cusco.

Though only 80 kilometers (50 miles) separate Machu Picchu from the bustling city of Cusco, the rail journey takes more than three and a half hours. It’s an awfully long time for two exhausted adventurers to be trapped with a group of happily hammered Dutch day trippers, so it is with a great deal of relief that they disembark, catch a cab to Plaza de Armas, and make the walk to their hotel.

Still, they know that there will be little rest for them. Though it is late, they must re-pack their gear in preparation for their upcoming adventure: a 7-day excursion into the Peruvian Amazon that will begin the next morning – well before dawn.

© Eden Feuer