Not quite the Inca trail

---

- FOOD: Nothing much to report here for once.

- AREA: High season and fully booked up. Not used to this. Ollantaytambo is a small village with a relazed feel with a fantastic Inca fortress, old Inca plaza and hills to climb (steep and hard work though). Cheap, nice hostel.

- PEOPLE: Chatty locals. Wish I could chat more than the basics with them. Old man begging for money and crying. Heartbreaking. Cute local boy who decided to be my guide for climbing the hill. Other cute locals who demand money!

- WEATHER: Burning sun.


Thur 16th: I left my backpack behind in the hostal as it's family run and seems safe, asked them 10 times if I could DEFINITELY have the room on my return. They smiled sweetly as said "Si, si" but didn't write anything down so I hope they mean it as Cuzco is choc-a-block due to the festivals.

I booked a jungle tour with an eco agency who were expensive but very professional, booked my train ticket from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes and then back to Cuzco (glad I had the foresight to do this as most tickets had sold out and on the way back, the backpacker train was sold out so I had to pay 50 dollars for the first class train - what the hell, it's only money).

It's weird being somewhere where it's high season - I'm just not used to so many gringos and everything selling out! Panicked because all the agencies I've been emailing to sort out a Galápagos trip are not coming up with the goods - AARRGGHHH.

Then caught a local bus to Ollantaytambo - a village in the Sacred Valley on the way to Machu Picchu. It was built as an Inca administrative centre. Chatted away to a very friendly local woman with a cute baby. Shame my conversation is always limited to the same old chit chat but the locals don't seem to mind and are fascinated by my travelling alone.

The minute I arrived I got harrassed by a hostel man who walked the whole 15 min walk with me up to the plaza. He seemed friendly enough and after all the effort he'd put in to sell his hostel, I went against my rules and went for it.
Good choice as it was a nice little hostel, newly refurbished and with the best security I've seen. The smell of newness was a bit intoxicating but the place was VERY cheap.

I had dinner outside in the plaza and regretted it as an old man begging for money started crying in front of me as everyone was ignoring him. So heartbreaking but I didn't have ANY change on me at all and felt awful.

There are lots of older couples here who obviously aren't doing the trail and the place has a very calm feel about it. I so love these small villages compared to the cities.


Fri 17th: I breakfasted outside chatting to an old guy and a woman with a 3 year old. They had looked at lots of other hostels and decided this one was the best so my decision was a good one. I was so interested to hear about her travels around the world with a toddler. He seemed very well adjusted to this travelling lark though and she was relieved to have me play with him for an hour or so.

The village is very small but has a huge Inca fortress which I spent hours exploring. I of course went the opposite way to the all the big American tour groups and the arrows.

It was very well preserved and really impressive. How can Machu Picchu be better than this? The fortress climbs a big mountain so the views are fantastic. At the top of the ruins it's possible to climb even higher - to the peak. I started this but obviously not many other people do this as the route isn't very clear and I freaked coz I heard snakes (in my mind they were snakes anyway).
No-one else was around and I suddenly had visions of slipping and falling as it was very steep. So I bottled out and came back down, explored the other side and then decided to challenge myself again with climbing back up the mountain on this side!

It was even steeper so I didn't make the top even with grim determination (it so reminded me of being little and determined that wherever Steve climbed - rocks, trees etc. I could easily follow - if he could do it, so could I!)

After lunch in the plaza, my determination was refuelled and I decided to climb the hill opposite the Inca ruins where remains of ruined buildings could be seen and where the rock is carved to form a 'face'. I'd bought an 'interesting' walking stick in the little market I named 'Olly' - he has a scary witch face and I decided he'd make a good travelling companion.

The info man told me the path was really unclear and difficult - excellent! Luckily a local 10 year old decided to follow me up. He kept overtaking me and RUNNING up! He was shy and didn't talk much but kept looking out for me and holding out his hand to help me up the steep bits. Very sweet but a bit unnerving whenever I sat down for a break as he'd sit very close to me and put his arm around me! Being the cynical tourist, I made sure my bag was very secure - was he trying to steal my money or just being nice and huggy?!

After clinging onto incredibly narrow ledges and balancing precariously to get to the houses and face, I bottled it again - it really was a bit too dangerous to be climbing without any safety equipment - especially when the boy leapt across a gap.
I looked down and decided to get straight back down the safe way rather than falling.

The kid didn't even ask for money but stood there shyly expecting it. I was going to pay him anyway and when I asked how much he'd like, he asked for 5 sols looking really guilty. Bless him, 5 sols is nothing! His face lit up. Sweet. Maybe he wasn't trying to steal my money after all.

I walked through all the very narrow streets where the locals live and was followed by 2 adorable children who were only about 4 and 2 years old. I naively thought they were just being cute until they demanded money from me!

I was jealous of the woman I'd met back at the hostel as her Spanish is fluent and she spends lots of time chatting with the locals. Having Willie probably helps even though she said even at 3, he already discriminates and won't play with the indigenous kids as readily as he'll play with the kids in Western clothes!!

I had hours to then just chill in the sun outside a cafe in the old Inca plaza all afternoon. And I still had hours to kill after the sun went down before my train so sat in a cafe next to the station. It started to fill up and was packed with gringos by the end. I wasn't feeling at all sociable until Stephen came and sat opposite me.

We hit it off immediately and after finishing the packed train journey to Agues Calientes (the town next to Machu Picchu) he let me stay in his hotel which was POSH (to my low standards anyway), had a hot shower and a spare bed in his room which was lucky as the hotel was fully booked. I'd heard leaving it to the last minute to get accommodation was stupid but had taken the risk anyway - glad it worked out ok!

---