Breakfast
was at 6 am, we left at 6:30, then were at the train station in Ollanytaytambo
just after 7 am. We were supposed to leave at 7:35 but the train was delayed by
an hour, sigh.
The train
cars were very nice and we had assigned seats. I didn't stay in mine much as I
was busy taking photos of the views along the way.
The vegetation changed during
the 90 minute ride and you could see we were entering the jungle zone. The
mountains are quite dramatic, and it was strange to see small farms near the
river that we followed.
When we
arrived in Aguas Calientas, we went to get tickets for an afternoon visit to
Machu Picchu. Only so many are available per day and we were in luck. They
aren't cheap but we wanted to be able to see the place more than just once.
We stopped
at a restaurant before we boarded the bus. Surprisingly, there are a lot of
pizza places here and ours was cooked in a wood fired oven - very delicious.
The ride up
was extremely cool. It's about a half hour ride and you climb and climb. Once
in a while, you get great views of the river and valley below. When a bus meets
another one on a particularly narrow section, one of them has to back up. There
are switchbacks and the road is bumpy - great fun!
Haha! It was
a gruelling walk up and we needed more than a few rest stops. Machu Picchu is
magnificent from on high and I shot more photos than I needed to.
We went
around the site very slowly which suited me fine. It was quite hot but
thankfully there was a breeze. We stopped a lot, me to take pictures, while the
other two I travelled with rested.
At one point
I spotted some llamas (or were they alpaca?). As I rounded a corner, a mother
llama was nursing her little one! So very cool to see that. There were several
llama wandering throughout the site and it made for some iconic pictures.
As it turned
out, the afternoon was a great time to go and by the time we left, the place
was almost empty. It's an amazing place.
I wore sandals as my runners were too
far away and I did just fine. It's the knees that were screaming. Also my
insect repellent was back at the hotel. Some others lent me some but it didn't
prevent me getting many, many itchy bites on my legs. I couldn't stop scratching
til I put some Benadryl on my bites.
We were only
there for about 3 and a half hours but it felt like much longer. Our hotel is
very nice, but it's a long walk from the bus, uphill of course.
I wanted a
little something from this place and found some cat placements as well as a
gorgeous stone pendant. The Main Street is about 65 - 70% restaurants, most of
which exist to sell pizza to tourists. We walked all the way down to the
square. Unfortunately we had to walk all the way back up again.
We were too
exhausted and not very hungry, so we stayed at the hotel for a bite instead of
going out with the group.
I can't tell
you how tired I am 😴
