Dec
9 Left Cuenca at 6pm on the bus. The bus took 5 hours and was a
terrible ride. Em and Kels thought we were going to die at certain
points driving too close to trucks full of gas tanks, with danger signs
plastered across the back. At the bus station in Guayaquil we wandered
around looking for the McDonalds, but settled for cheese empenadas
instead. I loaded mine with salsa to spite the gal selling them who
kept warning me the salsa was spicy. From the bus station we got a
taxi, of whom we asked about our hostel direction and he said yes he knew
it. Wrong. We were lost, driving around for close to 45 minutes, and
when we finally found it he tried to jip me another dollar because of
the extra driving. I don't think so buddy. Even before the taxi
drove away, we realized that the hostel didn't have our reservations.
We came in later than they had expected, and they had given away our room. We loudly laughed about the trouble we had had, and luckily
they upgraded us to a private room for the same price. We had a hot and
sweaty night of sleep in Guayaquil, and got up bright and early the
next day to fly out to Cusco.
Dec 10 The first flight from Guayaquil to Lima was fabulous. It was a
large international airplane, and I had three seats to myself to sleep
on. In addition, they gave us muffins. The flight was a little
delayed, and by the time we got into Lima, some people from our flight
were running on. We went to the bag carousel to pick up our checked
luggage, and at first Kels’ and mine didn't come out. Uh oh. We both
have bad lost bag karma and we were afraid this might be more of that. I went over to the desk to talk about our missing bags, and right as I was chatting with the guy, our bags popped out on a different carousel. Phew. From there we processed through customs, and popped back out to re-check in our bags; when we got to the counter, though, we realized the lines were too massive to stand in, and we carried on. Luckily they didn't catch our over-regulation sized sunscreens. Once in Cusco, we grabbed a taxi to our hostel, only after being told, "Did you already pay for that hostel? It’s in a bad part of town". Oh brother. In the taxi, a girl came along with us who worked at a travel agency, spouting off information about Cusco and obviously trying to get us to sign up for a trip with her. I was exhausted though, and not interested in listening to Spanish at the moment; we said thank you, we're tired, we'll call you later. Our hostel was much nicer than we had expected after the warnings, and are very happy with our decision. After arriving we showered, went online,
and then headed out to the city center to find some dinner. We ended
up at a Mexican/Italian/Peruvian place, which actually had some pretty
good Mexican food. We wandered and did some shopping, and ended up at
an Irish pub (the highest Irish pub in the world) to cap off our night.
Dec 11 We slept in a bit, and ate the breakfast provided at our hostel.
From there we ventured out, got our train ticket to Machupicchu, and
continued shopping shopping shopping. It's been a while since we've
been in such a touristy place, and we couldn't resist the fun shopping
offerings. After shopping ourselves out, we had some lunch, a McDonalds
Flurry, and headed back to our hostel, stopping at a grocery store
along the way. Our spaghetti dinner that we had picked up at the grocery store was questionable (a.k.a. not good), and our night started with a drink at the hostel bar, to McDonalds for some fries (hey, we don't have McDs in Cuenca), and then out to a bar with live music and 2 for 1 priced drinks. The music was all English cover songs, and we got called out a couple of times being the only gringos in the bar. We tried to go out dancing as well, but after realizing it was a Tuesday, settled for just going home.
Dec 12 We woke up and had breakfast at the hostel again, and ventured out
to try to find the LAN ticket office. The night before we had been
talking about our travel plans, and realized we were a little too
trigger happy with we made our original travel plans. We all decided
it would be nice to move our flight back, have less time in Cusco,
and have more time in Cuenca to get ready for Christmas and our next travel plans. After a bit of an adventure finding the ticket office, we handed over our credit cards and happily made the switch to leave two days earlier. From there we had lunch, and then hiked up to San Blas, the hippie-boho
area of Cusco. San Blas had a lot of sweet shops, definite hippie
items, and narrow, winding streets that kind of reminded us of
Santorini (all the doors were painting blue as well). After San Blas,
Kels and Em left to find a coffee shop, and I went to my first museum in Cusco, the Museum of Precolumbian Art. It was a beautiful space with collections of ancient pottery, woodwork, silver and gold, as well as a section with post-conquest, European style religious paintings. The collections were great, and best of all I was completely alone in the museum, which was a half eerie, half exhilarating experience. After the museum I returned home, made mac and cheese for dinner, and finished the night by joining some guy in the TV room to watch the end of two movies. Not a bad end to the day.
Dec 13 We got up for our earliest day so far at 7:30am, getting ready
and heading upstairs for breakfast. The plan for the day was to take a
tour of Moray, Maras, and Salineras, areas near Cusco. After
breakfast and sandwich making, we headed out with the hostel guide,
John, to wait for our tour van to pick us up. The first stop was
Chincheros, a small pueblo about 30 minutes outside of Cusco. There we
drank coca tea and were given a demonstration of how they clean,
process, and dye lamb and alpaca wool to make all of the beautiful
sweaters and scarves here. From Chincheros we went to Maras, another
small pueblo with Salineras salt mines located about 10 minutes
outside. The salt mines were scattered in a valley, part of the Sacred
Valley, and consisted of a giant network of little pools, which fill
with salt water and then are harvested in the summer months when all
the water evaporates. The final stop of the tour was Moray, where
large, archeological alien-looking circles can be found. There were a
total of four terraced rock circles, which spanned down 150
meters. Made with original stone, the idea behind these large circles
was the different levels allowed for different climates, and in
different climates one could grow different produces. The bottom ring
was hot and humid, like the jungle, while the top ring was cold and
dry, like the climate found in the mountains. We climbed all the way
down to the bottom ring, and although we were still cold, were
impressed by this grand and intelligent architecture characteristic of
the Incans. There were four large circles at Moray, each one representing an
Incan territory with Cusco at the navel or center of it all. Very cool. After Moray I passed out in the bus, woke up in Cusco, said goodbye to our fellow tour mates, and went to Plaza de Armas to chow down on some falafel.
terrible ride. Em and Kels thought we were going to die at certain
points driving too close to trucks full of gas tanks, with danger signs
plastered across the back. At the bus station in Guayaquil we wandered
around looking for the McDonalds, but settled for cheese empenadas
instead. I loaded mine with salsa to spite the gal selling them who
kept warning me the salsa was spicy. From the bus station we got a
taxi, of whom we asked about our hostel direction and he said yes he knew
it. Wrong. We were lost, driving around for close to 45 minutes, and
when we finally found it he tried to jip me another dollar because of
the extra driving. I don't think so buddy. Even before the taxi
drove away, we realized that the hostel didn't have our reservations.
We came in later than they had expected, and they had given away our room. We loudly laughed about the trouble we had had, and luckily
they upgraded us to a private room for the same price. We had a hot and
sweaty night of sleep in Guayaquil, and got up bright and early the
next day to fly out to Cusco.
Dec 10 The first flight from Guayaquil to Lima was fabulous. It was a
large international airplane, and I had three seats to myself to sleep
on. In addition, they gave us muffins. The flight was a little
delayed, and by the time we got into Lima, some people from our flight
were running on. We went to the bag carousel to pick up our checked
luggage, and at first Kels’ and mine didn't come out. Uh oh. We both
have bad lost bag karma and we were afraid this might be more of that. I went over to the desk to talk about our missing bags, and right as I was chatting with the guy, our bags popped out on a different carousel. Phew. From there we processed through customs, and popped back out to re-check in our bags; when we got to the counter, though, we realized the lines were too massive to stand in, and we carried on. Luckily they didn't catch our over-regulation sized sunscreens. Once in Cusco, we grabbed a taxi to our hostel, only after being told, "Did you already pay for that hostel? It’s in a bad part of town". Oh brother. In the taxi, a girl came along with us who worked at a travel agency, spouting off information about Cusco and obviously trying to get us to sign up for a trip with her. I was exhausted though, and not interested in listening to Spanish at the moment; we said thank you, we're tired, we'll call you later. Our hostel was much nicer than we had expected after the warnings, and are very happy with our decision. After arriving we showered, went online,
and then headed out to the city center to find some dinner. We ended
up at a Mexican/Italian/Peruvian place, which actually had some pretty
good Mexican food. We wandered and did some shopping, and ended up at
an Irish pub (the highest Irish pub in the world) to cap off our night.
Dec 11 We slept in a bit, and ate the breakfast provided at our hostel.
From there we ventured out, got our train ticket to Machupicchu, and
continued shopping shopping shopping. It's been a while since we've
been in such a touristy place, and we couldn't resist the fun shopping
offerings. After shopping ourselves out, we had some lunch, a McDonalds
Flurry, and headed back to our hostel, stopping at a grocery store
along the way. Our spaghetti dinner that we had picked up at the grocery store was questionable (a.k.a. not good), and our night started with a drink at the hostel bar, to McDonalds for some fries (hey, we don't have McDs in Cuenca), and then out to a bar with live music and 2 for 1 priced drinks. The music was all English cover songs, and we got called out a couple of times being the only gringos in the bar. We tried to go out dancing as well, but after realizing it was a Tuesday, settled for just going home.
Dec 12 We woke up and had breakfast at the hostel again, and ventured out
to try to find the LAN ticket office. The night before we had been
talking about our travel plans, and realized we were a little too
trigger happy with we made our original travel plans. We all decided
it would be nice to move our flight back, have less time in Cusco,
and have more time in Cuenca to get ready for Christmas and our next travel plans. After a bit of an adventure finding the ticket office, we handed over our credit cards and happily made the switch to leave two days earlier. From there we had lunch, and then hiked up to San Blas, the hippie-boho
area of Cusco. San Blas had a lot of sweet shops, definite hippie
items, and narrow, winding streets that kind of reminded us of
Santorini (all the doors were painting blue as well). After San Blas,
Kels and Em left to find a coffee shop, and I went to my first museum in Cusco, the Museum of Precolumbian Art. It was a beautiful space with collections of ancient pottery, woodwork, silver and gold, as well as a section with post-conquest, European style religious paintings. The collections were great, and best of all I was completely alone in the museum, which was a half eerie, half exhilarating experience. After the museum I returned home, made mac and cheese for dinner, and finished the night by joining some guy in the TV room to watch the end of two movies. Not a bad end to the day.
Dec 13 We got up for our earliest day so far at 7:30am, getting ready
and heading upstairs for breakfast. The plan for the day was to take a
tour of Moray, Maras, and Salineras, areas near Cusco. After
breakfast and sandwich making, we headed out with the hostel guide,
John, to wait for our tour van to pick us up. The first stop was
Chincheros, a small pueblo about 30 minutes outside of Cusco. There we
drank coca tea and were given a demonstration of how they clean,
process, and dye lamb and alpaca wool to make all of the beautiful
sweaters and scarves here. From Chincheros we went to Maras, another
small pueblo with Salineras salt mines located about 10 minutes
outside. The salt mines were scattered in a valley, part of the Sacred
Valley, and consisted of a giant network of little pools, which fill
with salt water and then are harvested in the summer months when all
the water evaporates. The final stop of the tour was Moray, where
large, archeological alien-looking circles can be found. There were a
total of four terraced rock circles, which spanned down 150
meters. Made with original stone, the idea behind these large circles
was the different levels allowed for different climates, and in
different climates one could grow different produces. The bottom ring
was hot and humid, like the jungle, while the top ring was cold and
dry, like the climate found in the mountains. We climbed all the way
down to the bottom ring, and although we were still cold, were
impressed by this grand and intelligent architecture characteristic of
the Incans. There were four large circles at Moray, each one representing an
Incan territory with Cusco at the navel or center of it all. Very cool. After Moray I passed out in the bus, woke up in Cusco, said goodbye to our fellow tour mates, and went to Plaza de Armas to chow down on some falafel.
After
the falafel lunch it was naptime, and then another
lazy night in. We watched a movie again, and actually went to bed the
latest we had so far, just from watching a movie. Grandmas.
Dec 14 Today included some good sight seeing. We had a leisurely
breakfast, and then spent a lot of the morning chatting with John, the
tour guide that lives and works at our hostel. From there we walked up
to Santo Domingo Church, also known as Qorikancha. It is a church that
had originally been an Incan place of worship, and then after the
conquest by the Spanish was turned into a Catholic church. I managed
to sneak in on the student discount, and am really glad I did.
Beautiful architecture and a really unique history. After the church
we grabbed some lunch, and headed over to the Choco Museo. It had
displays of how chocolate is processed, and then some chocolate beans
we could crack open and try, as well as chocolate and chocolate tea
samples. Yum. From the museum Emily headed home, and Kels and I
continued shopping and then ended up at San Pedro Market, a mix of
souvenir clothing and meats and fruits and cheeses, just like our
market in Cuenca but much larger. We came back to the hostel for
another leftovers dinner, with plans to stay in and watch a movie that
night. Haha. Naive us on a Friday night. We met some guys from our hostel in the TV room that convinced us to go out, meaning my two sweaters and make-upless face had to change. We started the night at Paddy's Pub, where I have officially found a delicious and cheap dark beer, and had plans to
meet up with the guys from our hostel at a dance club after. Well, we went
to the club, nobody was there, so we came up with a plan B. We ended
up at a place called Mushroom, which had a bouncer and list at the
door, but then a weird mix of Gringos and Peruvians inside. We made
friends with two guys from Savannah, and then we danced and chatted the night away.
Dec 15 The next day we paid for our late night out, spending most of
the day sleeping, eating, or on the computer. Not exactly what I want
to be doing in Cuzco, but a day without plans was actually kind of
nice.
lazy night in. We watched a movie again, and actually went to bed the
latest we had so far, just from watching a movie. Grandmas.
Dec 14 Today included some good sight seeing. We had a leisurely
breakfast, and then spent a lot of the morning chatting with John, the
tour guide that lives and works at our hostel. From there we walked up
to Santo Domingo Church, also known as Qorikancha. It is a church that
had originally been an Incan place of worship, and then after the
conquest by the Spanish was turned into a Catholic church. I managed
to sneak in on the student discount, and am really glad I did.
Beautiful architecture and a really unique history. After the church
we grabbed some lunch, and headed over to the Choco Museo. It had
displays of how chocolate is processed, and then some chocolate beans
we could crack open and try, as well as chocolate and chocolate tea
samples. Yum. From the museum Emily headed home, and Kels and I
continued shopping and then ended up at San Pedro Market, a mix of
souvenir clothing and meats and fruits and cheeses, just like our
market in Cuenca but much larger. We came back to the hostel for
another leftovers dinner, with plans to stay in and watch a movie that
night. Haha. Naive us on a Friday night. We met some guys from our hostel in the TV room that convinced us to go out, meaning my two sweaters and make-upless face had to change. We started the night at Paddy's Pub, where I have officially found a delicious and cheap dark beer, and had plans to
meet up with the guys from our hostel at a dance club after. Well, we went
to the club, nobody was there, so we came up with a plan B. We ended
up at a place called Mushroom, which had a bouncer and list at the
door, but then a weird mix of Gringos and Peruvians inside. We made
friends with two guys from Savannah, and then we danced and chatted the night away.
Dec 15 The next day we paid for our late night out, spending most of
the day sleeping, eating, or on the computer. Not exactly what I want
to be doing in Cuzco, but a day without plans was actually kind of
nice.
Dec
16 Yet another lazy day in Peru. We slept in, had breakfast, and
then Kels and I got ready for our adventure of the day: a trip up to
the Cristo Blanco on the hill. We took an 8 soles taxi ride up the
hill, which saved us quite a bit of getting lost and heavy breathing.
The view from the top was incredible, and what was even more beautiful
was the fact that some Incan ruins were just a stones throw away.
Instead of paying 70 soles to get in, we were able to peer into
Saqsayhuaman free of charge. The walk down was similarly beautiful, on
a peaceful cobblestone path, passing families on their way up for a
relaxing Sunday. After returning to Plaza de Armas, we read for a bit
in the square and came back home for lunch and another lazy afternoon.
Luckily the rain and the fact that everything is closed (because it was
Sunday) made me feel a little less guilty about enjoying the
relaxation. And the next day we were off to Aguas Calientes and on Tuesday,
Machu Picchu!!
then Kels and I got ready for our adventure of the day: a trip up to
the Cristo Blanco on the hill. We took an 8 soles taxi ride up the
hill, which saved us quite a bit of getting lost and heavy breathing.
The view from the top was incredible, and what was even more beautiful
was the fact that some Incan ruins were just a stones throw away.
Instead of paying 70 soles to get in, we were able to peer into
Saqsayhuaman free of charge. The walk down was similarly beautiful, on
a peaceful cobblestone path, passing families on their way up for a
relaxing Sunday. After returning to Plaza de Armas, we read for a bit
in the square and came back home for lunch and another lazy afternoon.
Luckily the rain and the fact that everything is closed (because it was
Sunday) made me feel a little less guilty about enjoying the
relaxation. And the next day we were off to Aguas Calientes and on Tuesday,
Machu Picchu!!
Dec
17 So this was it, the big day. We got up early, had a nice
breakfast, and got on a microbus to take us to Ollantaytambo. The ride
was rough and windy, but luckily I had popped a carsickness pill and
slept through the whole thing; Emily and Kels were not as fortunate.
Once in Ollantaytambo, we headed to the train station to leave for Aguas Calientes. Our ride with was Inca Rail was pleasant, and the views from the train were gorgeous. Once in Aguas Calientes, we walked around looking for our hostel and worrying about the rain that was falling, hoping it wouldn’t ruin our Machupicchu day. We ended up staying at a very hippie hostel; sufficient, but making us miss our hostel in Cusco. From there it was town wandering, food eating, and bus ticket buying. We were back in our hostel that evening by about 7pm, and in bed at 8:30pm. Luckily, the town had a power outage that night, leaving us to sleep in the dark and without the hostel dorm room lights turning on and off. Awesome.
Dec 18 The next morning we woke up at 4:45am, got ourselves ready, and
headed to the bus stop. Kels and I had been hoping to climb up to
Machupicchu from Aguas Calientes, but decided on the bus when Kels
still wasn’t feeling well; that choice turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
The hike up would have taken us at least 2 hours, straight up steep,
rock stairs. Once at Machupicchu, we entered and headed straight to
the gate for Huaynapicchu, the hike up the characteristic Indian nose
that you see in every photo. Everything was covered in fog that early
in the morning, and although it was a bummer the views were hidden, it
was almost cooler seeing everything covered in fog. Very mystic. We
started the Huaynapicchu hike at 7:30am, and were immediately floored
by what it was, an hour hike STRAIGHT up a mountain, up steep and
slippery stairs. Luckily there were railings to hold onto every now
and then, but it was still way steeper than we had anticipated. At the
top the view was again hidden by the clouds, something which made my
afraid-of-heights roommates really happy. We still got peaks in the
clouds of Machupicchu, and it was beautiful and peaceful way at the
top. After the treacherous walk down (down the same slippery and scary
steps we walked up), we were back in the village of Machupicchu, ready
for 10am lunch and exploring. We walked through all the parts of the
city (which actually wasn’t as big as it seems from pictures) and then
up towards Machupicchu, the larger mountain opposite Huaynapicchu. It was incredible. I couldn’t believe that I was actually at a place that I had been dreaming about visiting for years. After taking in the view, we decided it was time to head back down to Aguas Calientes. Kels and I opted to walk down, both for the experience and to save the $9 on the bus. And again, we were so glad walking up hadn’t worked out. It took us more than an hour just to go down, and once we finally arrived in Aguas Calientes our knees, feet and
legs were so sore. Oh well, the true mark of an accomplished hike.
After returning to our hostel we showered, napped, and had an odd
Mexican dinner (okay, so were not in Mexico. Guess we couldn’t have
expected much), we headed back to our hostel to chat with other
travelers and watch some movies. Again, we couldn’t believe what we had
just done that morning. We had seen Machupicchu.
Dec 19 The next morning we slept in, had breakfast at our hostel, and
got our stuff ready to go. Unfortunately we had seen all there was to
see in Aguas Calientes (it’s a small town), and our train didn’t leave
for Ollantaytambo until 2:30pm. So there we were, at 11am, sitting in
the town square, people watching. By 2pm we headed over to the train
station, and boarded our more crowded train for what would hopefully
only be an hour and a half long ride. Unfortunately, travel karma was not much on our side this trip. There was an unforeseen rockslide on the train tracks, and our train had to stop for close to an hour while they moved the debris. Needless to say, that extra hour stuck on a train full of loud Americans was not what we wanted to be doing. Once in Ollantaytambo we were pretty ready to just be home, so we quickly found a micro bus to take us back. They like to load up their transportation here, and this was no
exception. Every seat was filled, with backpacks piled on laps. I
popped another carsickness pill, but didn’t give it enough time to
start working. The whole ride was me either trying to sleep (with my head bouncing against the window), feeling sick, or feeling the woozy affects of the drug. It was not a pleasant drive, but we were glad to be back in Cusco. We ran to the grocery store, bought our dinner and lunch, and hurried back to our trusted hostel, Southern Comfort, for some dinner and R & R. The
next day our long journey back to Cuenca began.
Dec 20 We got up for breakfast in our hostel, showered, and packed up all our things. We were planning to just hang out in the hostel all morning, but I had the urge to visit Plaza de Armas just one more time. I did some last minute shopping, and was about to head back to the hostel when I
walked past the Convento de la Merced out of curiosity. The student
price was only 3 soles (about a dollar. And yeah, if I still look like
a student, I’m going to cheat and get the student price), and after
contemplating for a bit, decided to go in. The convent was a beautiful flowery courtyard, and the church inside had all the typical statues and beautiful decorations of a Catholic church. Around the main square were small museum rooms, one filled with gold and silver pieces, another with art, and another with cassocks worn by the first Spanish priest to come to Cusco. In the silver and gold room, they had a beautiful piece that held the second largest pearl in the world. It was an incredible and beautiful space, and they
even had tour guides standing around to offer information. My tour
guide was William, and we ended up chatting for about 15 minutes
before I took off. Well, well worth the $1. Back at the hostel it was
lunchtime, and the final Internet fix before our long, dreaded, trip back to
Cuenca. As Emily said, “I don’t really like the travel part of traveling...”
breakfast, and got on a microbus to take us to Ollantaytambo. The ride
was rough and windy, but luckily I had popped a carsickness pill and
slept through the whole thing; Emily and Kels were not as fortunate.
Once in Ollantaytambo, we headed to the train station to leave for Aguas Calientes. Our ride with was Inca Rail was pleasant, and the views from the train were gorgeous. Once in Aguas Calientes, we walked around looking for our hostel and worrying about the rain that was falling, hoping it wouldn’t ruin our Machupicchu day. We ended up staying at a very hippie hostel; sufficient, but making us miss our hostel in Cusco. From there it was town wandering, food eating, and bus ticket buying. We were back in our hostel that evening by about 7pm, and in bed at 8:30pm. Luckily, the town had a power outage that night, leaving us to sleep in the dark and without the hostel dorm room lights turning on and off. Awesome.
Dec 18 The next morning we woke up at 4:45am, got ourselves ready, and
headed to the bus stop. Kels and I had been hoping to climb up to
Machupicchu from Aguas Calientes, but decided on the bus when Kels
still wasn’t feeling well; that choice turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
The hike up would have taken us at least 2 hours, straight up steep,
rock stairs. Once at Machupicchu, we entered and headed straight to
the gate for Huaynapicchu, the hike up the characteristic Indian nose
that you see in every photo. Everything was covered in fog that early
in the morning, and although it was a bummer the views were hidden, it
was almost cooler seeing everything covered in fog. Very mystic. We
started the Huaynapicchu hike at 7:30am, and were immediately floored
by what it was, an hour hike STRAIGHT up a mountain, up steep and
slippery stairs. Luckily there were railings to hold onto every now
and then, but it was still way steeper than we had anticipated. At the
top the view was again hidden by the clouds, something which made my
afraid-of-heights roommates really happy. We still got peaks in the
clouds of Machupicchu, and it was beautiful and peaceful way at the
top. After the treacherous walk down (down the same slippery and scary
steps we walked up), we were back in the village of Machupicchu, ready
for 10am lunch and exploring. We walked through all the parts of the
city (which actually wasn’t as big as it seems from pictures) and then
up towards Machupicchu, the larger mountain opposite Huaynapicchu. It was incredible. I couldn’t believe that I was actually at a place that I had been dreaming about visiting for years. After taking in the view, we decided it was time to head back down to Aguas Calientes. Kels and I opted to walk down, both for the experience and to save the $9 on the bus. And again, we were so glad walking up hadn’t worked out. It took us more than an hour just to go down, and once we finally arrived in Aguas Calientes our knees, feet and
legs were so sore. Oh well, the true mark of an accomplished hike.
After returning to our hostel we showered, napped, and had an odd
Mexican dinner (okay, so were not in Mexico. Guess we couldn’t have
expected much), we headed back to our hostel to chat with other
travelers and watch some movies. Again, we couldn’t believe what we had
just done that morning. We had seen Machupicchu.
Dec 19 The next morning we slept in, had breakfast at our hostel, and
got our stuff ready to go. Unfortunately we had seen all there was to
see in Aguas Calientes (it’s a small town), and our train didn’t leave
for Ollantaytambo until 2:30pm. So there we were, at 11am, sitting in
the town square, people watching. By 2pm we headed over to the train
station, and boarded our more crowded train for what would hopefully
only be an hour and a half long ride. Unfortunately, travel karma was not much on our side this trip. There was an unforeseen rockslide on the train tracks, and our train had to stop for close to an hour while they moved the debris. Needless to say, that extra hour stuck on a train full of loud Americans was not what we wanted to be doing. Once in Ollantaytambo we were pretty ready to just be home, so we quickly found a micro bus to take us back. They like to load up their transportation here, and this was no
exception. Every seat was filled, with backpacks piled on laps. I
popped another carsickness pill, but didn’t give it enough time to
start working. The whole ride was me either trying to sleep (with my head bouncing against the window), feeling sick, or feeling the woozy affects of the drug. It was not a pleasant drive, but we were glad to be back in Cusco. We ran to the grocery store, bought our dinner and lunch, and hurried back to our trusted hostel, Southern Comfort, for some dinner and R & R. The
next day our long journey back to Cuenca began.
Dec 20 We got up for breakfast in our hostel, showered, and packed up all our things. We were planning to just hang out in the hostel all morning, but I had the urge to visit Plaza de Armas just one more time. I did some last minute shopping, and was about to head back to the hostel when I
walked past the Convento de la Merced out of curiosity. The student
price was only 3 soles (about a dollar. And yeah, if I still look like
a student, I’m going to cheat and get the student price), and after
contemplating for a bit, decided to go in. The convent was a beautiful flowery courtyard, and the church inside had all the typical statues and beautiful decorations of a Catholic church. Around the main square were small museum rooms, one filled with gold and silver pieces, another with art, and another with cassocks worn by the first Spanish priest to come to Cusco. In the silver and gold room, they had a beautiful piece that held the second largest pearl in the world. It was an incredible and beautiful space, and they
even had tour guides standing around to offer information. My tour
guide was William, and we ended up chatting for about 15 minutes
before I took off. Well, well worth the $1. Back at the hostel it was
lunchtime, and the final Internet fix before our long, dreaded, trip back to
Cuenca. As Emily said, “I don’t really like the travel part of traveling...”
We
headed to the airport around 2pm, a little early for our 4:50pm flight, but we
really had nothing better to be doing. We checked in, got rid of our bags, and walked over to the
security area only to be told there
were no shops beyond that point, and it was too early for us to go through security. We found some chairs
upstairs, and continued our marathon
of sitting and waiting. We finally headed down at 3:30pm, went through security (where the guard found Emily's erotic
Incan statue she had bought for her boyfriend. Hilarious reaction), and did
more sitting. And of course because we
actually had extra time, we were given
more time with a 30-minute flight delay. After the delay the flight went by without a hitch, and at the airport we
found our bags, and got in an
overpriced taxi to our Lima hostel. At the hostel we ordered in pizza, and
chatted with the only other guest, a
girl from Switzerland, before going to bed early. Our 3:30am wake up call would be coming far too soon.
Dec 21 Well I think I slept one hour the entire night, strange because
I usually don't have trouble falling asleep in new places. We woke up
early, got our stuff, and headed out for our second to last taxi ride. The
airport was crowded, strange at 4am, and we were glad we had yet again
arrived early. Another delayed flight, another fine flight, a muffin
and a lot of sleep. Off of the plane in Guayaquil we went through
customs, found our bags (they all arrived again! I'm hoping this means
my lost bag bad luck is over), and got in another taxi. We didn't know
how to find our bus back to Cuenca, but eventually the right person
yelled "Cuenca" at us, and we followed him quickly to the ticket
counter. We were pulling out of Guayaquil about half an hour later, on
our way home! The bus ride was fine (after popping a Bonin, of course),
and the final leg of the trip took us through Cajas National Park, a
beautiful reminder of the place we call home. Fredy picked us up at
the bus station, and it was "Hallelujah, we're home!" from there.
Incredible trip, but travel always makes me appreciate home (even a
temporary home) all that much more. Now it’s time for Christmas in Cuenca, and after that another trip to meet my parents in the northern Ecuador to see Quito, Otovalo, and Mindo before coming down to show them Cuenca.
Dec 21 Well I think I slept one hour the entire night, strange because
I usually don't have trouble falling asleep in new places. We woke up
early, got our stuff, and headed out for our second to last taxi ride. The
airport was crowded, strange at 4am, and we were glad we had yet again
arrived early. Another delayed flight, another fine flight, a muffin
and a lot of sleep. Off of the plane in Guayaquil we went through
customs, found our bags (they all arrived again! I'm hoping this means
my lost bag bad luck is over), and got in another taxi. We didn't know
how to find our bus back to Cuenca, but eventually the right person
yelled "Cuenca" at us, and we followed him quickly to the ticket
counter. We were pulling out of Guayaquil about half an hour later, on
our way home! The bus ride was fine (after popping a Bonin, of course),
and the final leg of the trip took us through Cajas National Park, a
beautiful reminder of the place we call home. Fredy picked us up at
the bus station, and it was "Hallelujah, we're home!" from there.
Incredible trip, but travel always makes me appreciate home (even a
temporary home) all that much more. Now it’s time for Christmas in Cuenca, and after that another trip to meet my parents in the northern Ecuador to see Quito, Otovalo, and Mindo before coming down to show them Cuenca.
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