Peru - Aguas Calientes (day 6, Part 2)
Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.
After our hike, we went back to our rooms to clean up, then surrendered our bags to the front desk. They would be waiting for us at the train station that afternoon when it was time to head back to Cusco. We had one last meal at the Inkaterra Lodge, this time at a restaurant down the hill from the glass walled dining room we’d eaten at previously. I honestly couldn’t tell you what the main course was, because we were so taken with the multicolored potato appetizer with assorted dips, and the creamy exciting desserts.
After finishing our meal (and taking advantage of the computers in the restaurant with internet connections to catch up on email and see whether anyone had posted wedding photos), we headed towards downtown Aguas Calientes. This was a whole other world from the blissful paradise of the Inktaterra Lodge, and yet again far removed from the dreamlike surroundings of Machu Picchu despite the mountains towering over the city.
The city was crowded with multi-story buildings, a crafts marketplace, restaurants, souvenir shops and people. We spent some time picking out gifts for people we hadn’t found anything for at the crafts market days beforehand, and walking around in the sunlight. We crossed over this bridge near the center of town several times during the couple days we were in town, going to the Machu Picchu busses, going to our hotel, walking around the city.
After crossing the bridge, we came to a town square with several statues. The main one was of Pachacutec, the Ninth Sapa Inca of the Kingdom of Cusco. Sometimes called “The Napoleon of the Andes,” he oversaw much conquest and growth for Cusco. By the time he died in 1471, his empire ran from Equador to Chile, and encompassed modern day Peru, Bolivia and much of Argentina. Most of the landmarks we’d seen in previous days, like the Coricancha temple and Sacsayhuamán were constructed under his reign.
At his feet were statues of a man and a woman along with two cats.
Imagine our surprise when we looked closer, and discovered the statues to be Manx cats like Pandora and Sushi, the beloved Gifford family felines!
Continuing through the city, I was surprised to see that even as far into more rural areas of Peru, both trash and recycling cans were stationed along the streets. The containers were also a lot smaller than we’re used to seeing in public places. In less consumer-oriented places than the United States, there just didn’t seem to be as much need for giant trash receptacles.
As the afternoon wore on, we headed back towards the train station where we picked up our luggage, got a snack and waited for our train to arrive.
Train station at Aguas Calientes:
We boarded our train and settled in for a relaxing ride back the way we’d come, where we’d be meeting a van to take us to our hotel in Cusco. I guess the company running the VistaDome trains thought we might be bored of the mountainous scenery like this:
So, on the way home…Entertainment was Provided. All of a sudden, Andean folk music blared through the train, and this gentleman was spinning through the aisle with a stuffed llama hanging on for dear life! The guy across the aisle from us slept through the whole thing - wonder if he would believe what was going on if we’d told him.
The entertainment did not end with the dancing. After the dance demonstration concluded, we were presented with a fashion show of alpaca products (with option to buy, of course) that consisted of our train attendants ducking into the bathrooms to change and taking turns strutting down the aisle sporting the latest in Andean fashion.
At the conclusion of the show, the whole cast (llama included) posed for photos.
That’s about it for photos I have of day 6, but little did we know that our adventure was just beginning. It had started to rain during our train ride (the first real rain we’d seen all week), so by the time we got to our transfer point it was raining in earnest. We found the representatives holding signs with the name of our travel agency, and sprinted to the cars with nine or ten other people. Cars? Try car.
For the first time on our trip we were crowded into a large van with several other groups of travelers and all of our luggage. It was stuffy. There was a grouchy infant. It quickly grew dark, and without the highway lighting we are accustomed to in the states, the road all but disappeared to our eyes. I don’t remember how long the trip lasted, but it was many hours. Nobody talked much, between being tired from their exciting travels and being uncomfortable in the cramped quarters. As we started to weave down the mountain roads I wondered briefly whether we’d mistakenly gotten into a car with people who were only pretending to be with our travel agents, and wondered frequently whether we were going to careen off the winding mountain roads.
Finally, at long last we saw the lights of Cusco appear in the distance. The size and the shape of the city are pretty unmistakable, especially to a carload of travelers desperate for fresh air and bathrooms! Without a doubt, that leg of our trip is the one thing I wish our travel agency had planned better.
We stumbled into our hotel in Cusco, reclaimed the rest of our luggage that we’d left in storage several days earlier and headed for our room. It was late, but we decided we should probably eat something. After our miserable car trip, comfort food was the order of the hour so we went to the one hotel bistro that was still open, ordered pasta and pizza with seltzer instead of anything exotic or local, and then returned to our room to sleep, hoping that the remaining discomfort was leftover from our harrowing car ride and that we’d feel great again in the morning.
The rest of the photos of Aguas Calientes can be found in my flickr set: Day 6 - Aguas Calientes