recouping from the travel.
Thursday, our flight finally took off at 7pm (2.5 hours late) and the
flight was uneventful after that. We arrived in Lima around 2am or
so, and had no problems getting our luggage and getting through
immigration and customs. To get out of customs we had to press a
button that randomly gave either a red light or green light. Everyone
was getting green, but when Mark pressed the button, we got red. That
meant we had to get our luggage xrayed, but that only delayed us about
20 seconds or so. =)
Our flight to Cusco was at 5am, so we went to the LAN counter and
checked our bags. Then we headed for the gate. We had a variety of
food on Continental, and we were mostly just tired, but not really
hungry. Just before security we paid our airport tax. The airport
was not very busy at that time in the morning, but we only had 2 hours
so we decided to go right to the gate. At the gate, everyone had a
group of three chairs and were laid out sleeping. We read our books
and Joanna dozed, but starting around 3:30, they had a wake up call
and started announcing flights.
At boarding time we were surprised to see that we went outside and
into a bus that drove us to the plane. We slept the whole way to
Cusco. We woke up briefly for an airline breakfast and to see the
sunrise over the Andean mountains.
We arrived in Cusco at about 6:30 and got our bags with no problems.
Our Ollantaytambo hotel sent us a taxi. We found the driver with my
name on his sign and he told us it would be a 1 hour and 30 minute
drive to Ollantaytambo. Amazingly, we mostly stayed awake for the
ride.
The drive through Cusco was an eye opening experience. There are some
very poor areas. The houses were made out of clay bricks. Also,
there were hundreds of scruffy dogs wandering the streets. They moved
about just like people. Plenty of people were out and about as well
as it was the start of the work day. The streets appeared to have
very little by way of traffic control, and the drivers just did as
they pleased. We saw some pigs roaming the streets as well.
Once we were out of Cusco, the drive was mostly down to the valley.
The streets were bumpy, but not as bad as I had expected. The area is
beautiful with the mountains surrounding the valley and a very rural
setting of homes. We passed through the town of Urubamba before
getting to Ollantaytambo. In Ollantaytambo, the streets are
cobblestones and we arrived at our hostal quickly. We are staying at
Home Sweet Home. We arrived around 8:30 and the very nice owner
(Luis) told us that people were leaving, but a room was not quite
ready. We were ready to sleep, but we went out to the courtyard and
sat with others as they ate breakfast. We got some good travel tips
and then went to see when the room would be ready. Not yet.
So, we took a walk to town. The center of town was less than 5
minutes away. We were having no issues with altitude, but we took it
slow. As it turns out, we arrived for a celebration in the street. I
think all the kids of the area were dressed up in their school
uniforms and marching around the circle while an announcer spoke in
spanish. We saw many groups of kids in various little marching bands
with bugles, snare drums, and base drums. The kids were age 6 and up
to maybe 12 or 14. It wasn't very i n tune, but neat to watch. I
wished I had brought my camera, but oh well.
We came back to the hotel to find that we needed to wait one more
hour. Finally, though, our room was ready and we promptly fell right
to sleep. We slept for about 3 hours and woke at 2:30p much more
refreshed. We packed our bag and headed for the Ollantaytambo ruins
just down the street.
The ruins were very neat, but we didn't have a guide, so we could only
listen in on other people's guides. There were two types of Inca
stone. One was the grand no mortar type stone which you always hear
about. That was built only for the temple. Then the terraces were
built out of smaller stones with mortar as that was easier for the
very extensive terraces. The views were gorgeous and it was very
peaceful.
Afterwards we had dinner at Heart Café recommended by Luis. Joanna
felt a little sick and didn't eat much, but the carbonation in the
Inka Kola cleared it up. Mark had a typical Peruvian meal of soup, a
chicken and rice dish, and then dessert. Luis came by the restaurant
to wait tables and he told us we looked much better than we had in the
morning. That's good to hear.
We were already tired even though we finished at 7p, so we headed back
to shower and sleep. Mark found out that our water heater fuse was
dead and we were informed that there were no available extra fuses in
Ollantaytambo . So, we were told to take a really quick shower in a
neighboring empty room, but to keep it clean, because the occupants
were expected any minute.Two quick, and not that warm showers later,
we are here typing our journal and headed to bed.
It's been a relaxing day and tomorrow will have more activities.
Thanks for reading.
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