Alright! It’s the big day before the big day!
My Machu Picchu trek is tomorrow at 9am but I had to get there first.
The iconic tourist attraction is situated about 75km northwest of Cusco and there’s two ways to get there.
Hike along the majestic trails for a few days or take a train.
Ain’t no way I’m hiking for a couple of days so there was a 10:30am train waiting for me this morning.
An early rise
I ended up in bed by 9:30 last night which is probably going to be the norm for this trip if not earlier.
This time around I layered myself up nice and snug and actually slept through the night pretty well.
In fact I didn’t get out of bed until 9 hours later at 6:30am.
I got ready and popped over to the breakfast area in the hostel and sat down for my free breakfast.
And, man, was I tired!
Like I was literally falling asleep sitting there eating.
And so it became apparent that I hadn’t entirely escaped the wrath of altitude sickness as one of the side effects is fatigue.
Luckily I had a good couple of hours before I had to leave so I just headed back to my room, pulled out my laptop, turned on YouTube videos and lay down with my eyes half closed.
Finally at 9:30 I packed everything up, checked out, and grabbed a taxi to the Wanchaq bus station.
A bi-modal trip
Yup, you read that right.
My “train” ride actually started at a bus station because I had selected a cheaper option of bi-modal transport which consists of a bus ride from Cusco to Ollantaytambo for half the trip and then a train to Aguas Calientes to complete the last half of the trip.
As we boarded the bus I started to look at information I had written down about the hostel I’d be staying at tonight and noticed the price was quoted in USD.
No big deal as I brought an envelope of about $150USD with me for this trip.
Oh, shit…
The envelope!
Is.
Still.
In.
My.
Locker.
Crap! Crap! Crap!
I quickly sent a message to the hostel and thankfully the envelope was retrieved unscathed and will be waiting for me when I check back in there tomorrow evening.
Phew…
Each leg took about 2 hours and, honestly, I just had my eyes closed resting yet not quite asleep most of the time on the bus.
My eyes were wide open for the 2 hour train ride though as the sites to behold are plentiful along the train route.
I had read that optimally you wanted to sit on the left hand side of the train and wouldn’t you know it, my seat assignment was on the right.
On the aisle.
Facing backwards.
C’mon!
Eventually in a moment of sheer genius, I just got out of my seat and went to the end of the train car and looked out the window of the entrance door next to the bathroom.
I probably stood there for a good half hour taking countless videos before I decided to finally sit back down as we headed into Aguas Calientes.
By the way, as a side note – I had read varying stories about whether you can or can’t take on “carryon” size bags on the PeruRail trains due to lack of storage space.
I did and I had no problem, so, there’s that.
Anyway, it was just after 2:30 when we pulled into Aguas Calientes.
Hostel searching
Aguas Calientes (which translates to hot waters) is the start point for all visits to Machu Picchu. The little town is about 10km away from Machu Picchu’s entrance and is 100% tourism based.
Due to the town being so small and having my hostel marked on my map, I confidently walked into town towards my little green map marker.
The hostel wasn’t there.
Um, well, shit.
I walked around for about 10 minutes looking and eventually walked into another hostel and asked them where my hostel was.
The guy working the front desk was so gracious, he didn’t just point me in the direction of it, he literally left his hostel to walk me over to mine.
Of course, he couldn’t find it either.
So, he went to another place and asked someone there who finally pointed us in the right direction.
Man, these people were a godsend because, I tell ya, the hostel wasn’t anywhere close to where my map app and Google Maps said it was.
In fact it was literally a 30 second walk from where I got off the train and I had passed by it probably a half hour ago.
Oh well, whatever.
I was home.
My new hostel.
And a room all to myself!
An evening to explore
After checking in at 3pm, I setup all my stuff, took a nice long shower and just relaxed for a bit before finally heading back out at 5:30pm.
Considering I only had the one and only night to see all there was to see in Aguas Calientes, I went out to explore.
Now, when I say explore the town, well, there’s not that much to explore.
The streets are littered with restaurants, massage parlors, shops offering tours and so many souvenir shops.
From what I saw there are only four things to do here. Luckily the town is so small that no matter wherever you want to go, you won’t be walking more than 10 minutes to get there.
First stop was to visit the Ministerio De Cultura where you can get your passport unofficially stamped with a Machu Picchu stamp.
The place is also where people go to buy last minute Machu Picchu tickets which, by the way, you really shouldn’t do. Plan ahead or you won’t get the time or circuit you want.
The actual passport stamp is just sitting on a little unmanned card table outside the entrance where you can stamp your own passport.
Second stop was the Plaza Manco Capac which, honestly, was just a little square with a cool statue in the middle and tons of restaurants circling it.
As for the other two stops, well, those would have to wait cause this boy was hungry.
Dinner Hopping
I told myself before this trip that I wasn’t going to fall into the trap of wandering around looking for gluten free options. In reality, there’s more than enough Peruvian dishes that are just naturally gluten free that I can just walk into any restaurant and sit down.
Well, as fate would have it, I had marked a couple places on my map that people had said had a separate gluten free menu so, naturally, I picked one and went there.
Yeah, their GF Menu was a little menu of just 5 things which were either pastas or salads.
Sonofabitch!
It actually annoys me that a place like that would get listed on my handy GF Restaurant app I travel with so I wrote my own review on it.
So, as quick as I sat down, I got right back up and headed to the second place.
Same. Damn. Thing.
Okay, okay. Lesson learned. No harm, no foul.
Anyway, I just walked more towards the main square looking past all the restaurants for one that had some people inside and then I found what I was looking for.
My waiter Miguel was super friendly, spoke English, and understood my gluten allergy.
I picked a seafood and rice dish and he confirmed with the chef that the dish was fine for my allergy.
Oh, happy days!
I zeroed in on a dessert listed on the menu I had never heard of and he also confirmed that that one was also gluten free.
Suhweeeeet!
The seafood and rice was amazing and very filling. So much so that I told Miguel that I was going to walk around for a bit and come back later for dessert.
An after dinner walk
I actually walked back to my hostel to change into pants and a jacket as it was now 7pm and was getting a little chilly.
And then I was off for a walk.
Off to attraction number 3 – the thermal hot springs.
I walked to the other side of town only to find that it was s/20 ($7) to enter even though I only really just wanted to snap a photo or two and by this time of night, it was closed anyway.
Ah well, no biggie. I mean, I’ve seen a handful of hot springs on my travels so I’m not going to cry about not seeing this one.
Off to the last attraction – the Mercado Artesanal.
Just picture an area 2 blocks by 2 blocks filled wall to wall with vendors selling basically the same Peruvian souvenirs as that’s what the Mercado Artesanal is.
I will say I did buy some souvenirs to plop into my gift bags I always give the people who watch my cats for me while I’m gone and they’re kind cute if I do say so myself.
Back for dessert
Okay, enough walking around.
Time for dessert!
I went back to the restaurant and asked for Miguel to serve me again.
Soon after he brought me out their Suspiro Huaynapicchu.
What was it? Well, even with their English description of “Delicious Lima sigh with cañihua mousse, topped with canihua meringue”, I still wasn’t sure.
And what I got was not what I envisioned. No meringue to be found but it definately was a mousse. Of what? I have no idea but I will say it was pretty damn good.
And then it was time to call it a night.
I returned to the hostel, popped together this blog and settled in for what I hope would be a good night’s sleep around 10pm.
Tomorrow is the big day – Machu Picchu day!
Can’t wait!
