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Cusco
We got to Cusco around tea time after a 7 hour bus journey. The journey went quick, it was comfortable with huge cama seats and we were at the front on the top deck so we had a great view coming into Cusco. A 7 hour bus ride is a short one, considering the length of some of our other journeys. The hostel was nice and we were shown a room which had 4 beds and private bathroom, all to ourselves, buzzing. Cusco is a great city, its pretty to look at with some great architecture, although it is slightly too touristy. The first day was spent getting familiar with our surroundings. The next day we decided to visit the ruins of Saqsaywaman, which sounds like (sexy woman), it was only 2km away from the centre of Cusco so we decided to do it alone, rather than with a tour. In the morning we met a guy from Austin, Texas (Will), who also wanted to visit the ruins that day, so we all headed out to grab some lunch and trek to the ruins afterwards. It was a great advantage as Will spoke fluent Spanish. We found the ruins easily and we hired a guide between the 3 of us. I really enjoyed Saqsaywaman, the guide was really informative and the site seems really huge, although only 20% is left of the original structure due to the Spaniards tearing down walls and using them to build their own houses in Cusco!!! Later that afternoon we went to one of the museums which was free on our Boleto Turistico ticket.
That night we all headed out for something to eat. The day after Col and I went horse riding in the morning to another Inca site, which was nice, but I didn't think the horses looked that well kept. That afternoon we headed into the centre and chilled out walking around and having coffee. We decided to go to Pisac the next day and wanted to do it individually rather than a tour. I told Will we were heading as we knew he wanted to go to, so the 3 of us planned to go by Collectivo. We found the place to catch the bus, thanks to Will, and was all sorted. It took about an hour to get there, so when we arrived we headed for food. We then grabbed a taxi to the top of the ruins, it was quite a journey about 13km, so we could walk around and down back to the town, going down is easier than up. The hilltop citadel is huge with deep gorges on either side. The walk down was great, through beautiful terraces, mountainous flanks and along cliff hugging footpaths. The scenery was spectacular. We left Pisac about 5.30pm and grabbed a Collectivo back to Cusco. We then headed out for tea again. Will left the next day to do the jungle trek to Machu Picchu. We were leaving the day after to catch a collectivo to Ollantaytambo. Our last day in Cusco was spent sorting out our accommodation for when we were due back in Cusco and trying to find a bag to take what little clothing we needed. We decided to leave our large backpacks at the hostel, as the Collectivos are only small mini vans and our backpacks would be too large to fit in. We got lucky as our hostel had space for one night when we got back from Machu Picchu, we wanted to stay 2 more nights but they were full, so we asked if they had a cancellation to put our names down asap.
We walked across town to find the place to catch the Collectivo to Ollantaytambo, and it was pretty easy as a guy in the street was shouting Ollantaytambo, so we followed his voice. It was a lovely drive through, the scenery was outstanding, the sacred valley is just beautiful. It took just under 2 hours to get there, they drive fast and I mean FAST.
Ollantaytambo
The collectivo dropped us off at the train station and we walked back up to the small plaza de armas to find our hostel. Our hostel was very basic and cold but the lady running it was lovely. That afternoon we visited one of inca complex's which looked down onto the small town. It was free entrance with our boleto turistico, and it was a great visit. The next day we headed to the other side of town to visit the other inca site. It was a steep climb but worth it, the views were brilliant and we managed to visit all the ruins. We eventually headed down late afternoon and grabbed a coffee before heading out for tea. We found a great cafe called Hearts Cafe which did the best food ever! We spent 2 nights in Ollantaytambo before heading to the train station to catch the train to Aguas Calientes, getting excited, Machu Picchu was getting closer.
Aguas Calientes
The train ride into Aguas Calientes was pleasant, very busy, but comfy. The train had large windows which covered the sides and half of the roof, to allow plenty of vista views. The train journey only took an hour and a half. A member of staff from our hostel met us off the train. We headed out to check out the town, the scenery was great, nestled in between towering mountains which all looked like Wayna Picchu. We arranged our bus ticket for the next morning and planned to go out for dinner early so we could get a good nights sleep as we wanted to catch an early bus to Machu Picchu. That night Col tried lomo saltado, now he is hooked.
See our other blog for Machu Picchu.
That night we were just a little knackered! So we grabbed something to eat and headed back. We had to check out at 9am the next day which suited us as our train was at 10.55am. We lingered around the hostel for a bit before making our way to the train. The train journey back to Ollantaytambo was a little eventful, we were given a fashion parade by the staff and some guy in traditional costume decided to pick on me to dance with him. When we arrived we went to find a collectivo back to Cusco, we didn't have to look very hard.
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