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Marty's Adventures
Ear plugs helped the disco music go away and I finally had a good nights sleep. Up at 6am with a 7am ride booked to the airport. The ride to the airport through the city was a much different experience than our 1am drive through the other day. Collectivos filled to the brim with business men and school children, horns honking some sort of communication between the collectivos and the people standing on the sides streets....random honking for no apparent reason....adults and children running through the thick traffic.....everyone in a hurry at 7am! Little kiosks on the side of the streets selling food....people wandering through the traffic selling food....cars cutting each other off and more horn honking....our driver turned and said...." Welcome to the jungle!" He dropped us off directly outside the door to where we check in. We checked in and went through Security. It has been a while since Nat and I have traveled together but she is quickly being reminded of the feed Marty rule before someone gets hurt ;) The breakfast at the hotel didn't start until 730 so we didn't have breakfast. Although I had a granola bar first thing when we woke up it was time to find food! We found coffee and food and everyone is safe for now! Our flight to Cusco was an hour, bumps over the mountain but very cool to see the mountains in between the clouds. Seeing zig zag roads winding up way into the mountains wondering where they lead to. Imagining colourful Andean villages a top mountains. We arrived into Cusco and I had arranged a transfer directly to Ollantaytambo so we could have some time there to explore before our train left. There my name was on a sign and off we went! We thought we were at a high altitude but the drive out of Cusco was straight up through these crazy streets and colourful stores and markets. Our driver stopped twice at different tiny little markets on the side of the road and we each took pictures of the valleys and the people and children and made obligatory purchases.....but we got great pics and some nice souvenirs. The drive wound up the mountain and down the mountain with passing and honking....it is a different language that honking! My mother would NOT of enjoyed that ride! You know how your water bottles squish when you are descending in the airplane, our water bottles did that on the drive down into the valley! We made it to Ollantaytambo and Mario ( really that was his name) our driver dropped us off at the train station. The roads were not what I would call cobble stone but more boulders in clay or cement. It got bumpy when we got into town! We stored our bigger bags and ventured up into the town. We took a tuk tuk looking thing up to the main square then explored our way back down. We saw the Ollantaytambo ruins and quickly learned not to get caught taking pictures of the ladies dressed traditionally on the street or they will want money. Back at the train station we had lunch. Our train had windows in the ceiling so we could see the surrounding mountains on either side of the very narrow valley. Machu Picchu is only reached by train. The mountains are very green and there are higher ones that are rockier where there was snow! At one point I turned to Nat and said " I can't believe we are going to Machu Picchu!!". We arrived into Machu Picchu and it was raining. We may be in for a rainy day tomorrow but rain or shine we are in! When you first get off the train you have to walk through this amazingly colourful market. I had no idea which way our B&B was so we just started walking in the rain. We found our B&B down along the river just on the edge of town. Christophe our host greeted us at the door and was a wealth of information! We settled in to our room and then he sent us off to get bus tickets for the morning. We wandered around the town and found a place for dinner. Back in our room now, relaxing. Internet here is extremely slow. A good time to kick back and relax and not be on the Internet! Machu Picchu in the morning!!!
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