Blogs from Aguas Calientes, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 7

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South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes January 13th 2009

I get up at 7 am. The sun is up and I can't sleep. I'm waiting for my clothes. The hostel offered to wash my clothes and have them dry in less than two hours. I guess their drier wasn't working last night. The day doesn't look good for a few people in our group. Sofi is sick, Vicky and Flora both have knee problems. I hope they can make it to the end of our trek. We begin our trek and I take the lead again. Antonio doesn't seem to mind me being ahead and encourages me to lead the group. We stop at a man made waterfall. The water is coming out of a cave. It turns out the water is the run off from the hydro dam. It looks very impressive. We take ... read more
Impressive
We're happy we get to eat
Sofi & Paula wondering where lunch is

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes January 5th 2009

We made it up here after all last night, and go to see Machu Picchu this morning. Yesterday we got up at 4 to race to the train station and figure out our tickets. After several miscommunications the day before, turns out we were in the clear the whole time with our reserved tickets. If anyone reading this goes to Machu Picchu, I highly recommend buying tickets beforehand on Perurail.com. We took the very scenic 4 hour ride from Cusco to Aguas Calientes and hunted down a hostel to stay the night. With a few new Spanish words, we found a place with hot water for relatively cheap. Unbeknownst to us until later that night, the water was also coming from the ceiling. Several drips fell down the entire night, flooding our bed (mild exaggeration). ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes December 21st 2008

21st December, Aguas Calientes y Cusco, We were the last to have breakfast so sneaked some extra bread from the kitchen. We left our bags at the hostel then headed down to the river. We went for a 3 course meal that day and it was delicious. Feeling ridiculously full we waddled off to the internet to watse a few hours before picking up our bags and making our way to the train station as we were heading back to cusco. The train ride wasn´t so pleasant. It was a backpacker train, which meant it had tiny seats with no leg room. Two others sat opposit us which meant Jake was literally sat in front of the Chinese guy in front. 4 and half long hours later, with endless horn blowing from the driver which actually ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes December 19th 2008

19th December, Aguas Calientes We got an hour and a half bus to our first stop on our way to macchu pichu (MP), which was Ollantaytambo, which was a beautiful little village before aguas calientes. we were supposed to be getting a train at 8.53am from here, however, there had apparently been a landslide that morning on to the tracks. So there was an hour delay whilst it was cleared. The scenery was stunning, with mountians surrounding the little town. Eventually we got the train and still arrived by about midday at our destination of Aguas Calientes. The station was packed with ´gringos. After looking round for a while we got lost looking for our pick-up but he found us eventually. Our hotel was actually right next to the railway where we had gotten off!! This ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes December 10th 2008

So our last night in cusco involved experienceing the delicacies of the street vendors and the local markets. We had meat and one veg on a stick, some kind of fried sausage on a stick, tea made from some type of grass, oil flavoured doughnuts and juice of three mangoes. And our GITs are still intact. We also came across the wholesaler of all the souvenier stores over here. Bought some local Pisco for almost nothing then went to bed to wake up too early for the train. The train ride was largely uneventlful, aguas calientes is a very touristy town, with everyone gauging tourists for money. But its not as ugly as you read about, surrounded by verdant (scrabble word) mountains and has a fast flowing river. We just got back from machu pichu and ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes November 20th 2008

A hair raising bus trip to Aguas Calientes and we were at our hotel and saying goodbye to Eddison, our very entertaining tour guide of the past 4 days. Inspired by the Hiram Bingham story, I purchased his book but not before a trip to the hot springs of Aguas Calientes for a much needed muscle relaxant. The place was packed with exhausted Inca trail survivors and was nice even though the water had that funny smell to it. It was good to chat to numerous people from all around the world about the Inca trail experience, including some fellow aussies (who are normally recognisable by their accent, or if they do a bomb into the hot springs). We ended the day with a pizza in the dodgy town as there was not much else on ... read more
Prime restaurant strip

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes November 18th 2008

"How is it possible to feel nostalgia for a world I never knew?" That quote is one of my all-time favorites, and by far my favorite one from the movie Motorcycle Diaries. I've often had that thought in mind while in Mexico, exploring the remains of pyramids and civilizations from long ago, wondering what life was like when the civilizations existed and were prosperous and even how their downfall really happened. But today it was even more perfect as that quote was said when Che Guevara was visiting Machu Picchu on his trip through South America on his motorcycle. And so today, I too was at Machu Picchu, wondering the same. There was a feeling of nostalgia for the Incas that once lived there. The ruins are so incredible and the mystery that still surrounds the ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes November 10th 2008

I am flippin tired. right now i'm in the town of aguas calientes, relaxing after a long three days journey. excuse me. epic journey. amazing. wicked hard. beautiful. magnificent. painful. i'll start at the beginning. in cusco we woke up at 4 am and left at 4 30 with the bare necessities. we piled into a van and left to begin our journey. we drove for about 2 hours and then stopped for breakfast. we had bread with butter and jam, tea, juice, and eggs. then we all bought bamboo walking sticks for 4 soles each and piled back in the van. we drove on a narrow dirt road on the side of a mountain. it was terrifying. at one point we almost fell off the cliff. i freaked out. but i'm alive now, so it's ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes October 31st 2008

Zo, dat was een goeie nacht! Spierpijn, dat dan weer wel, maar dat voegde eigenlijk alleen maar toe aan ons gevoel dat we iets bijzonders hadden gedaan. Zoals dat dan gaat, overheerste nu de trots en was de angst van gisteren allang weer op de achtergrond. Vandaag een half dagje te besteden in Aguas Calientes alvorens de trein naar Cuzco vertrok. We besloten te kijken of het Machu Picchu museum onderaan de berg te belopen was. En ja, dat was zo. Aanvankelijk dacht ik nog, wat moet je in zo´n museum als je net het echte werk hebt bezocht! Eh, al snel moest ik daarvan terugkomen want het was echt bere-interessant. Snuggere lui, die Inca´s, ongelofelijk! Het was zeer leerzaam om te zien hoe de architecten van MP niet alleen tot in detail hadden nagedacht over ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Aguas Calientes October 7th 2008

It´s been raining almost nonstop in Aguas Calientes (and Machu Picchu) since yesterday. It was nice at night when the sound of the raindrops lulled me to sleep, but not so nice when we had planned to return to Machu Picchu today. Since we also have tomorrow to go back, we decided to spend the day here in Aguas Calientes instead. The hotel we are at (Inkaterra) has its own gardens with a walking path, so we set out in the rain on a short nature hike. There are 18 species of hummingbird here at the hotel and we saw about 5 or 6 of them. Taking pictures was tricky however, but I did get a few. We also saw the native bird of Peru perched high up in one of the trees. After our hike ... read more
Hummingbird
Hummingbird
Hummingbird




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