The bus ride was long. Very long. I guess I woke up around 7am when the sun was up. We received a roll and a half of a Styrofoam cup of tea for breakfast courtesy of the bus company.I guess it was around 10am when we had to stop to change the tire. One of the travelers had a soccer ball, so a few of us kicked it around for a bit. There was also a fairly large group of Peruvian high school kids on the bus on a field trip.
We challenged each other to a match, so it was five against five. I thought that they would whoop us, but we gringos held our own. I was the only girl playing and (if I can pat myself on the back) I was responsible for a large percentage of the goals and steals. The game was over when we kicked the ball one too many times into the dirty stream down below. We won. After 19 hours on the bus, we pulled into Cusco. Driving into the city, I was not impressed. We shared a cab with two English girls and ended up paying 75 céntimos each to get to the Plaza de Armas. We shouldered our packs and walked to Hostal Quechua, which promised free internet, breakfast, and tea. The friendly receptionist poured us two mugs of coca tea upon arrival. Mmmm… I had always heard of the supposedly cure-all coca leaves (my mom swears by it for altitude sickness and Bolivians use it for everything!), but I had never had it before.
It was then that we opened the flood gates to the coca tea.
We walked around to get our bearings in this new city. We found the tourist information, the market, and all the cute side streets. Cuzco is nice. Very touristy, but what else can we expect for the jumping off point to Machu Picchu, the Inca trail, Pisac, and other spectacularly preserved ruins?
We walked around for a long time trying to find the ellusive Indian food restaurant, so we settled for Alpaca and pizza instead. My Alpaca dish was delicious! Nate's pizza was not very good. We shared both dishes, which ended up making me quite sick.
Back in the hostel, there was no internet. And we were paying an obscene amount of money for the room. So we told the receptionist 'thanks, but no thanks' and packed our bags. We gave them $2 each for the showers, but opted for the backpacker party mecca called Loki. Free internet, breakfast, coca tea, and kitchen privileges. Perfect!
But whenever we're in Loki, there's always some kind of drama. One of our dormitory-mates came in at 4:30am and had smashed his front teeth into his bottom lip and had no idea how it had happened. I put on some clothes and provided some moral support for his girlfriend until the doctor decided to take him to the hospital.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Got up leisurely. Spent some time walking around the city. Took advantage of the kitchen to cook up some lunch and dinner. Met some wonderful American women with Obama pins in the Plaza de Armas. And internet internet internet. Monday, October 6, 2008
Another travel day means getting up early. We hopped down to the train station to get our Ollantaytambo- Aguas Calientes train ticket. But no. The woman at the desk said that they were all sold out. You see, because of the transit strike the next day, all the travelers are booking their tickets in advance. The next available train would leave on Thursday. Thursday?! We don't have that kinda time.
We hop back to the hostel brainstorming all the way. We decided to go to Ollantaytambo anyway and then sweet talking our way onto the train. If that failed, well we didn't have a back up plan, so it couldn't fail... right?
Made some eggs and hopped a colectivo to Ollantaytambo. We missed the 12:11pm train, so we bought slightly more expensive tickets for the 18:58 train. That meant that we had at least 6 hours to explore this quaint, yet grossly touristic town.
It was raining, so we hopped in a restaurant for some yummy food! And then took a stroll around the town. We still had 4 hours to kill.
So we strolled around again. And again. Vendors tried to sell us coca candy, bags, ponchos, ANYTHING! But we fended them off. The main ruins of the city were 40 soles to enter. 40 soles? eek.
So we opted for the free ruins across town. To get there we had to go through a family's back yard and scramble up the rocky hillside. The children pointed the way. The air was thin and we were getting some good training for Machu Picchu! We explored the ruins. And then spotted some more ruins and hiked to those.
It was getting dark when we made our way down. So we headed to the train station to wait. The train came and we hopped aboard. Dinner and cramped leg room were included in the price. The rain drops plopped against the windows.
Aguas Calientes met us with a hectic welcoming crowd shoving hostel brochures in our faces. But we had booked ahead. A guy held a sign with my name and we followed him in the rain to the hostel.
I was a bit disappointed at the first impressions of Aguas Calientes. Expensive tourist town. Raining, but my pasta was ok and Nate's alpaca was good.
We fell quickly asleep that night.
1 comment:
A tourist who constantly complains about tourism. Hmmm....
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