We broke a few laws today so uh, we really should´ve gone to Peruvian Prison..

Thats right!

We hiked up to the entrance of the park of the Christo Blancó/Inca Ruins (aka Sacsayhuaman, pronounced ¨sexy woman¨) where we were greeted by ¨tourist police¨. These ¨police¨ wanted 40 soles (approx. 15 dollars US) as an entrance fee to continue the climb up to the park.

However, we are on a budget.

After our talk with the tourist police, this little Cusqueñan teenager approached us and advised us to follow him.. so we did. We talked to him for a while, exercising our Spanish skills, while he assured us that he´d taken others on this ¨free alternative hike before¨.

A bit scared and completely unsure- we continued to follow him up the street towards a residential neighborhood.

At some point, he leads us to a hill on the side of the road and tells us to cross this gnargly-looking barbed wire fence. Derek and I look at each other and decide that trespassing in a foreign country probably isn´t the best idea. However, tempted by the thrill of another adventure, I urge Derek that ¨everything is okay¨.. and I follow it up with a, ¨we can trust him¨...

While climbing through the tangled barbed wire, tearing our clothes, the harsh reality sets in that we really are doing something stupid... yet, again. However, we continue uphill- navigating our way through dense, sharp brush- hearts pounding with fear. At one point, we were definately on someone´s property and we have no idea whether or not there are any existing ¨make my day¨ laws on the books in Cuzco.. this notion alone added a little something special to the whole situation.

Finally, after all of the high altitude hiking, we make it to the top of the hill that overlooks Sacsayhuamán and the Christo Blanco- completely filled with a sense of pride and accomplishment. This Incan archaeological site truly is enormous and magnificent! (to tell you the truth, it would´ve been worth it to pony-up the 40 soles..) We sneak into the site through more dense brush, making certain that our presence goes unnoticed with the guards positioned down below. After entering the site, seemingly unnoticed, we have a look around. We climb around on the ruins and look out over the city. The sky was very clear today so the views were absolutely incredible.

After about 5 minutes on the site, we are confronted by a guard- sternly asking us for our ¨boleto¨or ¨ticket¨. Being the sneaky bastard that I am- I rifle through my backpack with such a contrived look of perplexity on my face. Immediately, I answer, ¨mi bolso esta abierto¨- loosly meaning ( I think, at least) that one of my zippers was open (which it was) persuasively saying that our passes must have fallen out.

Wow, doubt this guard has ever heard this same exact story from a couple of gringos before.. riiiiight.

He tells us to climb back down to where the rest of the guards are stationed, (aka the Lion´s Den) find the alleged guard who allegedly ¨checked¨ our tickets to begin with, and have that guard issue us new ones. We agree and start climbing down- meanwhile, this kid is freaking out. He keeps telling us to ¨esperar¨or ¨wait¨ until the guards leave.. uh, yeah right kid. This kid´s ¨loco¨state of mind really had me frightened. We continue to walk down to the gate, hearts pounding like crazy with the uncertainty of our almost certain fate of going to prison for trespassing. Again, we were confronted by more guards.

They proceeded to escort us off the site.

And that was it! No jail, no extortion, not even a slap on the wrist..

Thank you, Christo.

We booked it back to the central plaza- and here we sit, reliving our eventful day in Cuzco.....