Sneaking Into Incan Ruins in Ollantaytambo, Peru (Pictures)

Living in an Incan village is about as quiet at night as you'd expect, but that doesn't mean that my mornings before work aren't dominated by fast-paced activities such as "reading" and "blinking dust out of my eyes," or my personal favorite "mangling Kechwa words and being laughed at by my coworkers." Yeah, we get rowdy. But I can still bachata better than them, so I've got that going for me. The other day, though, I beat out all of those riveting pastimes with one of my own: sneaking into the Incan Ruins right outside of my job.

It was scary easy, actually, and that combined with the ridiculous entrance fee is what makes me proud of doing it. The money goes straight to Lima, anyway; the village doesn't see a dime of it, meaning my coworkers also encouraged my adventure. You see, my favorite spot in the village is a little flat bit a quarter of the way up the side of a mountain, just around the corner from the aforementioned ruins.

Actually, last Monday I found out that if you climb all the way up the mountainside, even wearing flip flops and shorts, you can astound yourself by arriving at the Incan ruins. That first time I was so surprised by the fact that I continued to climb higher and nobody stopped me, that I left my book and camera and phone at the bottom of the mountain. I exited the ruins and went back to retrieve them, untouched of course, and resolved to sneak in again on my next day off, this time with my camera so that I could gather photographic evidence

I think these borrachos are supposed to be stopping me from sneaking in... maybe.

And oh boy, photos I did get. I climbed and walked, occasionally pausing to enjoy the view. If I meditated, I would probably compare it to that. There was a guy in a red windbreaker who I thought might have seen me sneak in, but I'm still here and alive, so I guess I imagined our entire rivalry.

I neither deny nor admit to ever doing this again. Like, later this month.

"Max, did you sneak into the ruins again?" "No no no, that would be silly; why would I do such a thing?"

Max Gandy | (@damecacao)님의 공유 게시물님, 2015 10월 15 오후 12:02 PDT