Off to Aguas Calientes

  Aguas Calientes, Cusco, Peru Friday, April 1, 2016

The day had arrived for us to leave for Machu Picchu. You can't get there directly from anywhere so we had a multi stage trip ahead of us. First the guide picked us up in the car and dropped us where the buses leave from. He pointed us to a public bus, told us to get on it and to get off again in Ollantayambo. So we did. The drive took us back over the route we had come back from the Sacred Valley tour. Through the lovely little town of Chinchero, through all that stunning scenery again, down into the town of Urabamba and onto the train station at Ollantaytambo. It took about an hour altogether and by the time we arrived at the station, there were only 3 of us left on the bus.We could see several trains already at the station but which one was ours? We walked through the ticket checker at the entrance and were greeted by Peru Rail with cups of cocoa tea. It was starting to feel a bit like the Orient Express experience now - except they would never have let us on the Orient Express dressed like this! The train before ours was called and many travellers disappeared at this point and we still had about another 30 minute wait for our train. We had researched the trains so thoroughly we knew all the trains by now. Oh that one is the expedition so it has smaller windows, oh that one doesn't have entertainment etc etc. We had really wanted to take the Hyram Bingham which is the Orient Express of Peru. Even when you work out the cost of everything extra you get with a ticket against buying everything individually, it was only £100 each extra but at this stage of our trip, it was an extravagance we just could not afford.So we had plumped for the middle option of the Vista dome train which still pricy for such a short trip, but the views from the train were so much better than the cheap train. Our train was called - the 303 - just 2 carriages long. Bryan went for a peek about and discovered we would have rear facing seats. Uh Oh! That makes Jody feel sick and we can't have that. We had been into the Peru Rail office in Cusco to avoid this very situation but they could not help us. They told us to just ask as we got on the train so we did as they suggested. So as we boarded, we asked if at all possible and there were any free seats, could we please just swap to a front facing seat? They assured us we could have a very good seat and led us to the front of the train.Well we could not have got better seats surely. We had the seats right at the front next to the driver with a view straight down the tracks. Fabulous! We had some of the best views of all that stunning (there's that word again) scenery of the mountains and the Urubamba River that flows alongside the train all the way. The train moves very slowly but the arrival in Aguas Calientes came all to soon. The small town that nestles at the bottom of the mountain and is the town of Machu Picchu. The tourist trains go no further and it's 'all change' here. It was a lovely journey and Bryan has made one of his now famous vidoes to give a flavour of it. You can see it here if you want to. We were supposed to have a guide meet us and he was supposed to be holding one of those little signs up with our name on it. But after 15 minutes of waiting we decided to head off on our own to find our hotel. We managed to find it, and rather wished we hadn't. We clearly didn't pay enough for our ticket as it was pretty grim. Grim but clean and the beds were comfy. We got a message from our guide saying he would meet us at the hotel at 8:30pm so we decided to go to the hot water springs (which give the town their name; Aguas - water, Calientes - Hot).This was another bad choice as it turned out. We were staying right at the top of the town which is exactly the right place to be to walk to the pools. The roads here all lead one way - up - and they are very steep. If we had been staying near the bottom of town the effort to get to the pools would have been too much and we wouldn't have bothered. Once inside the ticketed gate, it turns out you still have another 1/2km to walk up a steep hill. It is actually quite a pretty walk though as long as you can breathe long enough to look at it! The pools collect the natural hot water as it flows out of the ground but today it was definitely not hot and they had put gravel in the bottom of every pool, just like in a fish tank. It felt horrible on your feet and you couldn't help wondering what muck was concealed in it. And then it started to rain.That was enough and we got out. No showers were available either so just straight into our clothes. And then it absolutely chucked it down. It was a torrential, tropical downpour and it had no intention of letting up. Bryan got changed back into his swimming trunks to keep his clothes dry and Jody bought a rain poncho as there was no way on earth she was walking back into town in her bikini! When we got back to our hotel (earlier than planned) our guide had left another message to say he would be here at 9:30pm. We were getting a bad feeling about him now. So with plenty of time to spare we went out for dinner. Aguas Calientes has lots of nice little restaurants you can eat at so we didn't have to walk very far. This meant we were still back at our hotel by 8:30pm. And guess what? Yep our guide had been to see us, waited half an hour and we were told 'because we hadn't showed up' he had left again leaving a message that he would see us at the top of the mountain at 6:15 am - don't be late! Huhh! the nerve of him. Well at least we could get to bed a whole hour earlier than we thought - tomorrow was going to be a very early start and a very long day!