Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu

On Monday we took a bus tour through the famous Sacred Valley. The valley meanders through the unbelievably high Andes mountains. Our bus flew around the tight turns and we gasped at the possibility of falling over the cliff edges. The valley is more lush than most of the surrounding valleys because the Urubamba river flows through it. The river actually goes all the way through Brazil to the Atlantic ocean. We stopped at the ruins of Pisac, built high on the top of a mountain. We hiked along the narrow stone path that the Incans built and there were times where we both thought we were going to fall. It was pretty scary but once we reached the ruins we could relax and take in the views.

Click here to learn about Pisac

We continued our trip to the city of Ollantaytamba. This is where the road ends and the only way to continue our trip was by train. In Ollantaytamba there is also an amazing ruin and a town filled with vendors selling coca leaves and porters carrying hundreds of pounds on their backs. We stayed in Ollantaytamba for a few hours until our train departed for Aguas Caliente (Machu Picchu). We hiked the ruins and learned bout how the Incans built elaborate sun and moon temples to help them grow their crops. We watched the sun set and the clouds pass under the tips of the surrounding mountain tops. Our guide Walter pointed out that we should gaze over toward the edge of a steep mountain terrace in the distance (hundreds of feet high) and look for the face of an Incan man carved out of the cliff. He mentioned that every June 21st, the sun shines right through the face and it lights up. The Incans celebrate Inti Raymi every June 21st (equinox), the festival of the sun. We sat there and took in the strange lush desert-like landscape and could totally understand why the Incans lived in this valley. After the sun went down, the temperature changed dramatically. The wind started kicking up and the busy city quieted down. We found a cafe overlooking the Urubamba river and warmed up to some delicious hot chocolate. (The hot chocolate is no joke here, they melt real coco, rice and canela (cinnamon). We then went to an adorable family-run restaurant playing excellent Peruvian music and ate brick oven pizza (very popular in Peru). After dinner we layered up and took the walk down the dark road to the Aguas Calientes train station.

At exactly 8 O'clock the guards opened the gates and everyone pushed their way onto the tracks to board the train. We have learned that in Peru you will be pushed by people who want to get in front of you ... all the time. We climbed into our train car and took our seats. We waited for the train to move. We waited some more. An hour went by. Then two hours. Everyone just wanted the train to move. After 3 hours of sitting in the train yard, we finally moved. Then we stopped. Then we we went back to the train yard. Then we moved forward again. Then the conductor hit the brakes hard. We went backwards again! Finally we moved toward our destination and we fell into a deep sleep.

When we woke up it was 1 in the morning and we were in Aguas Calientes, the gateway to Machu Picchu! We were tired but excited to be in such a special place. The tour guide who arranged our trip told us to expect someone from our hotel to pick us up at the train station. Nobody did. We walked into the town plaza and found our hotel. As we approached the hotel a tired looking lady asked us if we had a reservation. We handed her the envelope that our travel agent told us to give her. Her eyes lit up ... there was money inside the envelope. This is where things went sour. The lady quickly placed our envelope in her office and escorted us across the plaza to another hostal. This hostal was clearly not as nice as the one we were supposed to stay in. She walked us up to a room and told us that someone would be at our room in 10 minutes to give us instructions for the next days tour of Machu Picchu (nobody ever showd up). She left. We were alone in the room and upset that we were dropped off in such poor accomodations. The room was dirty and there were various stains on the walls ... and ceiling? Rich walked around bed and saw a fresh pile of POOP on the floor! It was huge and discusting and could not have come from a human. Outraged, we went back to the original hostal and pounded on the door. We woke up the lady and demanded that we stay in a better room. She said that there were no rooms in the hostal or the rest of the hostals in town for that matter. It was now 2 am and we were supposed to hike Machu Picchu early the next morning. We needed a place to sleep. After some arguing, Rich went into the office and grabbed the envelope full of money and we walked off into the night without a room to sleep in or a clue where we were.

We found a pizza place still open and asked them if they knew of a hostal with rooms. A young man with a long pony tail and an easy going smile offered to walk us around town to look. After an hour of waking up hostal managers, we finally found a hostal where we could speep outside on their balcony. We were just happy to have place to sleep so we agreed. We slept on two couches pushed together and when we woke up the next morning we could finally see where we were. We were in a lush, green valley with towering mountain peaks. Things were looking up.

More to come ...