Peru Trip: Aguas Calientes

We're starting to get into the real nitty gritty of our trip now. Today was the day we made the long journey up to Aguas Calientes. Aguas Calientes is a small town outside of Machu Picchu. It was the common place for tourists to go before and/or after visiting the Inca ruins.

Our journey began with a driver picking us up at the hotel and dropping us off at the bus station in Cusco. We jumped on a bus, like this one, and drove about an hour to the train station.

Our wait at the train station wasn't terribly long. We had assigned seats on the train so we felt better about not fighting the line to get a good seat.

Inside the train it was very comfortable. Some seats faced each other so four people could ride together. Our seats were just the two of us and we rode backwards. Not my favorite idea, but it was fine. I took this picture while sitting in my chair and just lifted the camera and shot blindly. Sorry to the lady blowing your nose, I wasn't trying to capture you in such an odd moment.

The ceiling had sky lights so we could see the tall mountains as we rode.

The view along the way was fun to snap pictures of.

Here we spotted a guy with some goats down along the river bank.

We saw some Inca buildings and terraces.

Joe and I were both amazed at the size of some of the rocks along the river. We would love to witness one of them actually fall to their current location. Can you imagine?!

Then the pace of the river really picked up. Before our trip we saw online that white water rafting was an option and activity we could participate in... let's just say glad we didn't. Whether this is the river where the rafting actually takes place, I don't know. But seriously there's no way we could handle these rapids.

One of the train stops along the way was where a few people got off and met up with the Inca Trail. Although there are many more miles to the Inca Trail, this section was 26 miles long and hikers ended up at Machu Picchu. It takes them four days to complete, but there is also a two day option for less motivated people. Joe and I never had any ambition to hike the trail. We much preferred the bus/train form of transportation. Just wait though, we got our hiking workout once we got to Machu Picchu. If you squint you can see some people walking the trail below. As we departed this train station we rolled down the window and yelled "see you in four days!" I kid...

Thankfully the train ride did come with some free snacks and beverages. These banana chips weren't kidding, they were very salty. One observation I made in Peru was the amount of salt and lack of sugar. Most desserts we tried were not as sweet as I would have preferred (or maybe I'm just used to). And items like this were way salty. Don't get me started on my thoughts of Coca Cola again, you all know how I felt about that!

It was neat to see a big difference when we got into the jungle. The greenery was very lush and full compared to the first part of the trip. Machu Picchu sits in the jungle, but not in the Amazon like you might think. Part of the reason it was not discovered for so many years is because the vegetation over grew the structures and covered them up. When Machu Picchu was finally discovered, many people worked to uncover all of the buildings and structures.

When we arrived at the train station in Aguas Calientes we didn't really know what to expect. I had the hotel info so we knew where we eventually need to end up, but wasn't sure how to get there. No worries though, we were greeted by this smiling guy and my name was on his sign! I loved this so much I asked if I could take his picture... notice Joe hanging out in the background. Another guy with the same company actually walked us to our hotel and explained that at 7:00 that evening we needed to meet back in the lobby. Our tour guide for the next day (Machu Picchu... so excited!) would meet us in the lobby and brief us on the plans.

And here we are at the hotel... La Cabaña. We were pleasantly surprised with the hotel. After looking online at out options in Aguas Calientes we knew it would be nothing like the JW Marriott, but we accepted that. I realize I can be a hotel snob, what with working at one and having high expectations.

The room was cozy and had clean sheets, lots of TV channels (with a few in English) and warm water. What more could you ask for in one night?

Really our only issue with the hotel was the noise at night. Our room was literally at the front of the building with our windows facing the main walking path in Aguas Calientes. Here was our view out the front. We had an early wakeup call the next morning so we made sure to get to bed early, but that didn't do much good because there were lots of people outside which meant lots of noise. Oh and there was actually a little band of somesort playing too. We were laying in bed when it started playing, I think they maybe played one or two songs. Then they moved along and we could hear them playing in the distance.

And here's another shot of the main path. You can see the green awning was right across the way from our hotel. This path was lined with restaurants and little food markets (I hestitate to call them grocery stores because truly they weren't... more like little gas stations that sold food and drinks... but without the gas).

Dog spotting! Funny story, we saw this one dog all over town (not the one in the picture below). He literally was the town bully! He was a small feisty little guy. We first noticed him when he nipped at a bigger dog and seemed to be beating up on him. Then walked away and sort of strutted his stuff. Let's just say each time we saw that darn dog around town we'd get out of his way.

One "must eat/drink" item that made it's way onto our list after arriving in Peru was chicha morada. It's basically a sweet tropical drink made of purple corn that was boiled with pineapple, cinnamon and sugar. This drink dates back to the pre-Colonial era in Peru, even before the Inca Empire! It was delicious, even if it was non-alcoholic.

We didn't see the drink much around Cusco, but it seemed to be common in Aguas Calientes and even in Machu Picchu. At the lunch spot outside of Machu Picchu they actually had chicha morada in a slushy machine! The restaurant had different country flags on each table, we just happened to be sitting at the Peruvian table. Oh and weirdly enough, a couple restaurants we saw in Aguas Calientes had Jenga on the tables. We never did play the game, but found that kinda funny.

And now for the number one "must eat/drink" item on our Peru list... guinea pig. You heard me right, guinea pig, or cuy (coo-ey) in Spanish. We had been told to try this and also read in a few books that guinea pig is a traditional meal in Peru and dates back to the pre-Colonial era. Actually, do you remember the Cathedral we visited during our Cusco city tour? There was actually a large painting of the last supper with Jesus and all of his disciples. What were they eating that night? Guinea pig of course. Because the artist was an Andean native he painted the picture with traditional Peruvian cuisine. So interesting!

Here I go, my face shows excitement, but I think my stomach is questionable. Oh come on, it really wasn't that bad. You can probably tell in the picture above that the restaurant deep, deep, deep fat fried the thing. It was bascially greasy chicken... or duck.

Joe looks excited too.

This picture was just for fun. Yes that is the head, but no he is not actually going to eat it. We just knew it would gross our parents out. Success?

And just because I find this so much fun, here's a close up of the head. I honestly think the only reason I could eat this was because I never had a pet guinea pig growing up. If I had owned one, this would never have happened.

We had all day to kill in Aguas Calientes so we continued on our walk. We noticed lots of school children around town. Then we realized there was a school at the bottom of the main street.

Then around the corner was the main square.

This statue is Pachacutec. His name manes "He Who Shakes The Earth" and that he bascially did in South America. He was the ninth king of the Incan Empire and was the one who really expanded their territory and conqurered nearby civilizations.

Aguas Calientes was a neat town nestled in the mountains and along a river. There were multiple bridges connecting the main part with a large market section. We enjoyed a little bartering there. We both both t-shirts while in Aguas Calientes.

Guess what, we had pizza for dinner. You might think we're crazy by now to eat pizza four days in a row. It truly was something we enjoyed trying different restaurants and types of pizza. Plus it was an easy meal to buy and we could always share a medium pizza without wasting any of it. This place had the wood fire grill right inside the seating area of the restaurant. As more frequent than we would have liked, we were the only ones eating in the restaurant. I jumped up to snap a picture of our pizza cooking.

This was the Machu Picchu pizza (say that 10 times fast) without the veggies (or... sin verduras, in Spanish. I still got it!) We were preparing ourselves for tomorrow when we were actually visiting Machu Picchu. The excitement level this night was high, it was almost time!!

After dinner we went into one of those "grocery stores" I mentioned earlier and bought dessert. We got ice cream cones, well and some beers. We found out that Cusqueña came in cans also and they sold them individually. Score!

Like I already mentioned, we met our Machu Picchu tour guide in our hotel lobby at 7:00 PM. His name was Ro (and no this is not  a typo, I specifically asked) and he was great. Made me feel at ease as we prepared for the highlight of our trip.