Advertisement
Photo 16
looking over at machu piccu As expected, the third day was not as interesting as the first two, but it did have a few moments of note. We started off by taking a bus to the trail head, rather than walking. This was rather frustrating to some in our group, because it was not listed as part of the itinerary, and cost extra. Some people had been traveling for a while, and were really tired of the creeping cost nature of the region by this time. I have to admit, even though our walk along the train tracks between Santa Teresa and Aguas was not more than a few hours, and it was flat, my feet were still sore from the day before, and my loaner backpack was not up to the standard of the US backpack manufactures that I have become accustomed to. The hard plastic plate in the pack dug into my tail bone, and I ended up adjusting it to be uneven in order to accommodate that.
However, after a stop by the river, we arrived at the tourist mecca of Peru- Aguas Calientes. Just about everything seems to be a hotel, travel agency, message parlor, restaurant, cafe or bar. Having said
that, I don't think it is really as bad as the guidebook says it is. The area is nice, it is clean, safe, and other than the inflated prices, not that objectionable. Our hostel had hot water (once the propane arrived. we seemed to catch the establishment off guard). It could have been the nicest place we stayed so far this trip.
The highlight and lowlight of the the day was a hike up to a peak overlooking Maccu Piccu. Our guide pitched it as a not so hard hike, but I think it was sure a bit a challenge, after the hiking we had been doing the last few days. It involved straight vertical sections with climbing on ladders for a good couple hundred feet. The view was great, but the hike was so intense that the group ended up getting up top about 1.5 hours apart, and was thus delayed coming down. Americo had told people that they didn't need head lamps because it was not going to be that late. Well, it ended up being that late. Some of us were slipping and sliding down the mountain in limited visibility. Justin and I got an earlier
Photo 2
the river through town. Notice the man made waterfalls to the right. THe nice river was not enough for them. start down the mountain, but those that came down with the guide were not happy. They let him know that this was not the best idea he had come up with, at which point he ditched them. Not cool. However, everyone made it down in one piece.
We had to be up at 4am to hike up to Maccu Piccu. I would have assumed that an early bed time would go hand in hand with that. I was wrong. Much to my dismay, we didn't even leave for dinner till 8:20. Then, establishment messed up the order, didn't bring out my food. Watched over the table for a quarter of an hour and 3 reminders of this before bringing out their scratch pad and showing us that they had all the orders.
By this point and was more tired than hungry, and left to go to bed.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 14; qc: 23; dbt: 0.066s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb