Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Due to poor planning (no printed itinerary) and the lack of connectivity when we stepped off the train, it took 40 minutes to arrive at our Aguas Calientes hotel, that was only 10 doors up from the carriage door we exited the train from.
Once I had suitably apologised for my sense of humour failure, we checked in and found the room to be large, with 4 soft beds, a TV and a cracking shower. The view was obscured by night, but the sound of rushing water heavily suggested a canyon-side location.
We thought we'd be smart and plot up ready for Machu Picchu by buying bus tickets the night before along with lunch supplies from the local mercado. For 9 soles we bought cheese, 6 soles for a salami chunk, both from the stall of a merchant who also sold fish and served us mid-conversation with a local woman while gutting a particularly ugly specimen. Food Standards would have a fit!
I realised I'd lefty penknife in my pack in Ollantaytambo, so we 'borrowed' on from our 0530 breakfast in Hostal La Payacha - sorry!
When we arrived at the bus queue at 0605 we were halfway up the hill and had to wait for 40 minutes to board a bus to the site. Queue and ticket management was highly efficient with in-queue visual checks of bus and site ticket validity, scanning of bus tickets prior to boarding and barcode scanning of the buses (or drivers) presumably to work out the number of trips and therefore pay.
There appeared to be 24 buses on a continuous circuit which must make for highly skilled but very bored drivers - not a great combination probably, although the accident rate is low, or at least unreported!
Ernesto became our guide for the morning, engaged as we milled off the bus, so onwards and upwards we go!
- comments