November 1, 2011
Well on Sunday night I didn't sleep at all. Second night in a row now that I can't sleep. Altitude wasn't bothering my breathing this time and I did take sleeping pills but they didn't work.
Monday morning I get up and wait in the lobby of my place to be picked up and they come at 8am and they drive me to the bus. It is about a 5 hour bus ride to Santa Teresa and another 30 minutes past it to an entrance to Aguas Caliente (which means "hot water"). There are no roads accessible for vehicles to enter which is why you have to take the train or the walking trail. I am assuming everyone speaks spanish on our bus by the sound of it but I meet "Ee-lar" from Holland since he doesn't speak a word of spanish.
As we are at the half way point we are the first ones on the scene of a bicycle accident where a young woman on a bike tours with others must have wiped out and she was completely unconscious for 5 minutes or so and slowly revived her and got her on our minibus with some of the people on her bike tour and Ee-lar gives up his front seat so she can lie down. I am in the other front seat and notice that half of her front tooth is chipped off completely and a huge gash under her chin. We dropped them off at our turn off point and I notice the tour bike operator woman giving our driving a lot of money obviously for the ride. There is no charity here and everything has a price.
We stopped in Santa Teresa for a late lunch and continued another 20 minutes to the tourist train which brings people into Aguas Caliente which is a 45 minute trip but most of us our scheduled to walk 2 1/2 hours to get there. So Ee-lar and another guy from the Chech Republic named "Mee-kel". Obviously this is the way their names are pronounced in english and I have no idea of how they are really spelled. The 3 of us are walking much faster than the rest and we left at 4:30pm and now it is 6pm and very dark where we can only make out the rail road tracks that we are walking beside. At 6:30pm we arrive in Aguas Caliente and it is a small 2-3 block town tucked in the crevasses of some huge mountains and it becomes obvious why there is no road into it. Just a river and a railway track.
Everybody on our bus tour was given a different place to stay and Ee-lar and I had the same hostel and we had a little map so once we arrived in town I sat on a curb with very little light trying to study this map when I see 5 pairs of little legs come up to me and as I look up I see 5 little girls wearing masks and looking at me a foot away which kind of tripped me out until Ee-lar says "Oh right, it is Halloween tonight!". So we get some directions from the locals and find our place. Later we meet Franco and Paula from Chile who are staying at our hostel as well as Sur-gay and Abdulla. Sur-gay is a Bolivian who speaks english and owns a Harley Davidson shop in Bolivia and Abdulla is a retired Saudi Arabia banker who now tours around South America with Sur-gay on their Harley Davidsons.
At the hostel we were told by our guide "Carlos" that supper was at 8pm and that he would explain everything to us in detail on the times and where to meet etc... As the 6 of us waiting for dinner we saw no one and it felt like the waiting for the cheesesticks type of moment until 45 minutes later we heard some dishes clanking in the kitchen and Carlos reassured us that someone is back there cooking our food. While we waited for our supper there were 4 Peruvians at another table and 3 of them were sleeping with their heads on the table like they were use to this type of service. Sur-gay who is from Bolivia told me that this service is much better than what I will find in Bolivia. Basically he told me the service in Bolivia you are lucky if they even come to your table. Carlos never did explain everything to us since he seemed confused holding 2 cell phones and talking simultaneously to people. We had to give them our passports so we could get our tickets for Machu Pichu and our train ride back and they gave our passports back at 10pm. Everybody wanted to go to Wayna Pichu as well but a days notice was not sufficient so I was the only on in our group going to Wayna Pichu.
Ee-lar and I got up at 4:45am and at 5:10am heading down to the buses where we bought a one way ticket to Machu Pichu entrance for $8US and it was totally worth it since I had a lot of hiking ahead of me and walking up to Machu Pichu would definitely tire out the old legs. The buses were nice Mercedes Benz buses. They were making $240US each bus for every trip and every trip back. Machu Pichu opens at 6am so Ee-lar and I wandered around for an hour and then we all met up with our guide Carlos at 7am and he showed us around the ruins for a couple hours giving us some Inca history and then I left on my own for Wayna Pichu since only 200 can go in the morning and 200 after 10am. It was a tiring hike up the steep steps. Just the way the stone stairs wound around the mountain I felt like I was climbing to Mordor.
The ruins of Machu Pichu do not have a name since the Incas spoke in Qechua and archaeologists have found no name for it so the ruins got named after the big mountain peak that is above it called Machu Pichu meaning Old Peak and Wayna Pichu is Young peak. At the top of Wayna Pichu I got a decent birds eye view of the ruins of Machu Pichu. As I walked down Wayna Pichu I recognized a woman and her husband from a tour I did in Lima. They are from New Mexico and said they are spending 3 days in Machu Pichu. I thought 3 hours was enough but I guess they want to see everything. As I walked down Wayna Pichu I could feel a sharp pain in my left knee like a pinched nerve.
When I was on Wayna Pichu I could see all the trails leading away from Machu Pichu main ruins to other ruins so decided I would see the Inca bridge and on my way I ran into Ee-lar and an Australia gal he was touring with and they told me the Inca bridge was only 15 minutes away and he told me he was probably going to take the train home and skip the ride with the minibus since it was a little uncomfortable. I went to the Inca bridge and was really thirsty and at the top a Machu Pichu employee was selling small bottles of water for almost $2US! I couldn't argue with the price since I was really thirsty and was far away from any venders. When I came back he asked me "Queires mas agua??" and I told him not at his prices unless I am super desperate like I was 20 minutes earlier when I bought my first bottle from him and drank in 2 minutes. We were all told that we would have to start heading down from Machu Pichu at 11:30am and so we could all meet up at 1pm and get the 1:30 train back to our minibus which is a 45 minute train ride. So I started walking and when I was 20% down the mountain I could feel a sharp pain in my left knee every time I bent it and I was regretting not taking the bus back.
We all met up and grabbed the train back to our minibus that was closer to Santa Teresa. While we waited in the Minibus I was wondering why we weren't leaving yet and asked the young woman and she said 5 were missing and I told her Ee-lar was probably on the next train for Ollantaytambo and the other 2 from Holland the previous day wanted to just be dropped off in Santa Teresa so we didn't have too many people to wait for and within 10 minutes we were off which was at 3:15pm and we arrived in Cuzco at 9pm.
I was really tired and they dropped us off in Cuzco in an area I was not familiar with but once I got off the minibus I started walking automatically to find my hotel since I had made a reservation for Tuesday night before I left to Machu Pichu. I didn't know where I was going but was going to rely on instincts and if they failed then I would just get a cab to my place. Well after 5 minutes I did find the main road and as I was walking some guy says "HEY my friend!! Come this way to a really great restaurant!". For some reason I thought that he knew me from one of the regular places I go to so I just followed him and he took me down a long hall down into a restaurant that had a big fire oven. He showed me where the washroom is and I tried to flush and it wouldn't flush and then I tried to wash my hands and there was no water. He came back and says "So? How you like it?" and I say "I don't like it. Toilet doesn't flush, no water in the taps and the urinal has no door so anyone in the restaurant can watch you take a wiz" and he says "Oh no problem" and I see him reach down and pull a main water switch to turn the water on. So I ordered a personal size hawaiian pizza and it was good.
I leave the restaurant and head down the street to my old hotel where I had already made a reservation. When I get there I found out that the hotel is booked and I politely remind them that I had already made a reservation with the owner Willy and his wife. Willy comes out and shakes my hand but he doesn't speak english so his helper tells me he knows I made a reservation but the people in my room are not leaving. Immediately I am thinking of that Seinfeld episode where he says "OH YES, you are good at TAKING the reservation but you are just not good at HOLDING the reservation". Anyhow Willy takes me to a hotel across the street and says it is the same price which was decent of him. So I am across the street right now. The woman here tells me the rooms are usually $30US a night and I realize why I am the only person here since it definitely is only worth $15US a night and not much better than Willy's place that Pilar from Lima had recommended to me.
So tomorrow (Wednesday) I am going to complete the sites (mostly museums) on my tourist ticket I bought and on Thursday I will be heading to Puno and Lake Titicaca.
Well on Sunday night I didn't sleep at all. Second night in a row now that I can't sleep. Altitude wasn't bothering my breathing this time and I did take sleeping pills but they didn't work.
Monday morning I get up and wait in the lobby of my place to be picked up and they come at 8am and they drive me to the bus. It is about a 5 hour bus ride to Santa Teresa and another 30 minutes past it to an entrance to Aguas Caliente (which means "hot water"). There are no roads accessible for vehicles to enter which is why you have to take the train or the walking trail. I am assuming everyone speaks spanish on our bus by the sound of it but I meet "Ee-lar" from Holland since he doesn't speak a word of spanish.
As we are at the half way point we are the first ones on the scene of a bicycle accident where a young woman on a bike tours with others must have wiped out and she was completely unconscious for 5 minutes or so and slowly revived her and got her on our minibus with some of the people on her bike tour and Ee-lar gives up his front seat so she can lie down. I am in the other front seat and notice that half of her front tooth is chipped off completely and a huge gash under her chin. We dropped them off at our turn off point and I notice the tour bike operator woman giving our driving a lot of money obviously for the ride. There is no charity here and everything has a price.
We stopped in Santa Teresa for a late lunch and continued another 20 minutes to the tourist train which brings people into Aguas Caliente which is a 45 minute trip but most of us our scheduled to walk 2 1/2 hours to get there. So Ee-lar and another guy from the Chech Republic named "Mee-kel". Obviously this is the way their names are pronounced in english and I have no idea of how they are really spelled. The 3 of us are walking much faster than the rest and we left at 4:30pm and now it is 6pm and very dark where we can only make out the rail road tracks that we are walking beside. At 6:30pm we arrive in Aguas Caliente and it is a small 2-3 block town tucked in the crevasses of some huge mountains and it becomes obvious why there is no road into it. Just a river and a railway track.
Everybody on our bus tour was given a different place to stay and Ee-lar and I had the same hostel and we had a little map so once we arrived in town I sat on a curb with very little light trying to study this map when I see 5 pairs of little legs come up to me and as I look up I see 5 little girls wearing masks and looking at me a foot away which kind of tripped me out until Ee-lar says "Oh right, it is Halloween tonight!". So we get some directions from the locals and find our place. Later we meet Franco and Paula from Chile who are staying at our hostel as well as Sur-gay and Abdulla. Sur-gay is a Bolivian who speaks english and owns a Harley Davidson shop in Bolivia and Abdulla is a retired Saudi Arabia banker who now tours around South America with Sur-gay on their Harley Davidsons.
At the hostel we were told by our guide "Carlos" that supper was at 8pm and that he would explain everything to us in detail on the times and where to meet etc... As the 6 of us waiting for dinner we saw no one and it felt like the waiting for the cheesesticks type of moment until 45 minutes later we heard some dishes clanking in the kitchen and Carlos reassured us that someone is back there cooking our food. While we waited for our supper there were 4 Peruvians at another table and 3 of them were sleeping with their heads on the table like they were use to this type of service. Sur-gay who is from Bolivia told me that this service is much better than what I will find in Bolivia. Basically he told me the service in Bolivia you are lucky if they even come to your table. Carlos never did explain everything to us since he seemed confused holding 2 cell phones and talking simultaneously to people. We had to give them our passports so we could get our tickets for Machu Pichu and our train ride back and they gave our passports back at 10pm. Everybody wanted to go to Wayna Pichu as well but a days notice was not sufficient so I was the only on in our group going to Wayna Pichu.
Ee-lar and I got up at 4:45am and at 5:10am heading down to the buses where we bought a one way ticket to Machu Pichu entrance for $8US and it was totally worth it since I had a lot of hiking ahead of me and walking up to Machu Pichu would definitely tire out the old legs. The buses were nice Mercedes Benz buses. They were making $240US each bus for every trip and every trip back. Machu Pichu opens at 6am so Ee-lar and I wandered around for an hour and then we all met up with our guide Carlos at 7am and he showed us around the ruins for a couple hours giving us some Inca history and then I left on my own for Wayna Pichu since only 200 can go in the morning and 200 after 10am. It was a tiring hike up the steep steps. Just the way the stone stairs wound around the mountain I felt like I was climbing to Mordor.
The ruins of Machu Pichu do not have a name since the Incas spoke in Qechua and archaeologists have found no name for it so the ruins got named after the big mountain peak that is above it called Machu Pichu meaning Old Peak and Wayna Pichu is Young peak. At the top of Wayna Pichu I got a decent birds eye view of the ruins of Machu Pichu. As I walked down Wayna Pichu I recognized a woman and her husband from a tour I did in Lima. They are from New Mexico and said they are spending 3 days in Machu Pichu. I thought 3 hours was enough but I guess they want to see everything. As I walked down Wayna Pichu I could feel a sharp pain in my left knee like a pinched nerve.
When I was on Wayna Pichu I could see all the trails leading away from Machu Pichu main ruins to other ruins so decided I would see the Inca bridge and on my way I ran into Ee-lar and an Australia gal he was touring with and they told me the Inca bridge was only 15 minutes away and he told me he was probably going to take the train home and skip the ride with the minibus since it was a little uncomfortable. I went to the Inca bridge and was really thirsty and at the top a Machu Pichu employee was selling small bottles of water for almost $2US! I couldn't argue with the price since I was really thirsty and was far away from any venders. When I came back he asked me "Queires mas agua??" and I told him not at his prices unless I am super desperate like I was 20 minutes earlier when I bought my first bottle from him and drank in 2 minutes. We were all told that we would have to start heading down from Machu Pichu at 11:30am and so we could all meet up at 1pm and get the 1:30 train back to our minibus which is a 45 minute train ride. So I started walking and when I was 20% down the mountain I could feel a sharp pain in my left knee every time I bent it and I was regretting not taking the bus back.
We all met up and grabbed the train back to our minibus that was closer to Santa Teresa. While we waited in the Minibus I was wondering why we weren't leaving yet and asked the young woman and she said 5 were missing and I told her Ee-lar was probably on the next train for Ollantaytambo and the other 2 from Holland the previous day wanted to just be dropped off in Santa Teresa so we didn't have too many people to wait for and within 10 minutes we were off which was at 3:15pm and we arrived in Cuzco at 9pm.
I was really tired and they dropped us off in Cuzco in an area I was not familiar with but once I got off the minibus I started walking automatically to find my hotel since I had made a reservation for Tuesday night before I left to Machu Pichu. I didn't know where I was going but was going to rely on instincts and if they failed then I would just get a cab to my place. Well after 5 minutes I did find the main road and as I was walking some guy says "HEY my friend!! Come this way to a really great restaurant!". For some reason I thought that he knew me from one of the regular places I go to so I just followed him and he took me down a long hall down into a restaurant that had a big fire oven. He showed me where the washroom is and I tried to flush and it wouldn't flush and then I tried to wash my hands and there was no water. He came back and says "So? How you like it?" and I say "I don't like it. Toilet doesn't flush, no water in the taps and the urinal has no door so anyone in the restaurant can watch you take a wiz" and he says "Oh no problem" and I see him reach down and pull a main water switch to turn the water on. So I ordered a personal size hawaiian pizza and it was good.
I leave the restaurant and head down the street to my old hotel where I had already made a reservation. When I get there I found out that the hotel is booked and I politely remind them that I had already made a reservation with the owner Willy and his wife. Willy comes out and shakes my hand but he doesn't speak english so his helper tells me he knows I made a reservation but the people in my room are not leaving. Immediately I am thinking of that Seinfeld episode where he says "OH YES, you are good at TAKING the reservation but you are just not good at HOLDING the reservation". Anyhow Willy takes me to a hotel across the street and says it is the same price which was decent of him. So I am across the street right now. The woman here tells me the rooms are usually $30US a night and I realize why I am the only person here since it definitely is only worth $15US a night and not much better than Willy's place that Pilar from Lima had recommended to me.
So tomorrow (Wednesday) I am going to complete the sites (mostly museums) on my tourist ticket I bought and on Thursday I will be heading to Puno and Lake Titicaca.
