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Published: June 14th 2010
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We woke up at 7am and again enjoyed the bread and jelly offered free at our hotel. We were then picked up just after 8am by our tour guide. We had arranged a tour to Pisac ruins, then to Ollantaytambo ruins. The tour then continued to Chinchero, but we chose to stay in Ollanta since this is where we have reservations tonight and where we have to catch the train tomorrow to Aguas Calientes. For only S32 (about $10), we thought it was still worth it, as this included our transportation to where we wanted to end up, plus 2 tours of ruins, plus a guide. We did have to pay the S130 (about $46) for our "boleto touristico" but we would have needed this anyways to enter most of the sites around Cuzco. There are 16 sites (ruins and museums) included in this ticket.
So our transportation was a mini bus with about 20 people. Our guide was an older guy but he knew his stuff and gave us lots of cool information about the Inkas that we can now use on our visits to the other sites.
Pisac ruins were kind of cool. We saw huge terraces
Pisac Ruins
These terraces were used for farming. (like steps/layers) of land where they did a lot of their agricultural activity - making use of otherwise non-usable land due to it being on a mountainside. We also walked up a bunch of stairs to view some old Incan cities that were apparently lived in my common people; the rich lived in Cuzco. We also visited a great market in Pisac which is best on Sundays apparently so we lucked out. I would have liked more time here but our tour was leaving so we only had a short while. Sarah and I were both able to find some things we were looking for (namely gifts for our significant others).
We then stopped for lunch in another small city (forget the name) before heading on to Ollantaytambo.
We were much more impressed with Ollantaytambo and agreed that they just kept getting bigger and better, which must have all been building up for Machu Picchu!
We did more hiking around the site in Ollanta and then said goodbye to the group and continued on our own. We found our hostel where we had made reservations (KB Tambo) but they didn't have our reservations. Luckily they had space.
We checked out the place and although their "jacuzzi" they raved about on the internet was "out of order for right now", and although there was no internet (as we had been told) and no TV, we decided to unload our things anyways. We then decided to walk around the small town.
We saw another hostel and decided to check it out for the night we would be coming back here from Machu Picchu. We found a place called "Hostal Las Orquideas" and found a double room with two beds, TV in the room, and free use of internet for $30, which was better than the $34 we were paying for less! We felt bad, but back we went to our other hostel, grabbed our bags, explained why we were changing and cancelled reservations for the 15th with them.
We instead reserved with this hostel for the night we get back on the late train. The hostel is going to hold our big bags here for the 2 days and 1 night we are gone. We get back here around 1am on the 15th (really the 16th) but they said that wasn't a problem.
Once we were
all settled into our hostel, we went back to a small market outside the ruins and did a bit more shopping. I got a really cute alpaca purse for only about $4!!!
We then found a cute pizza place right across from the small market where we each had an appetizer, personal pizza, and chocolate crepes for about $9 each. We were SO full but the food was delicious.
Now we're packing up our things and heading to bed early, since it's a 5am wake-up and down to the station to catch our train to Aguas Calientes.
We were originally planning on spending 2 full days at Machu Picchu but have heard from others that 1 day is sufficient. We had already pre-booked the train tickets so we're still going tomorrow to Aguas Calientes and then will sign up for the first bus to Machu Picchu on Tuesday, as well as buy our entrance tickets, etc; all of which apparently has to be done in A.C. anyways.
We will also hopefully be meeting up with Robb and Dave, as they also plan on spending Mon night in A.C. and then M.P. on Tuesday. The plan is
Ollantaytambo Ruins - Man in the Mountain
See the face? The buildings form a crown on his head. to meet up with them for dinner Monday and then maybe see M.P. together on Tuesday. Hopefully things work out that way, as it would be great to see them again.
Very excited about Machu Picchu. I'll keep you posted!
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