Day 3 and another 5am alarm. Lauren had a really rough night (1:30 am bad dream) and woke up with a really bad headache. She started out by checking to see if the oxygen tank was still in the hallway which it was and she took a good 5 minutes of oxygen before even going in the shower. Elias didn't start out much better, and well... it turns out we all needed some oxygen before preceding with the day. Ruben brought down the larger bags to check them with the hotel for the night. We had left with us 3 smaller bags that contained pajamas, changes of clothes, rain jackets, our dop kits, meds, cameras, snacks, the computer and other things to occupy us for the train trip (things we should have included: perhaps more clothes in case we got wet on the mountain and the cable to upload today's pictures onto the computer). Lauren also had a small backpack for carrying things when climbing up on the ruins.

The hotel included a nice complementary breakfast buffet of cereals, yogurt, made to order omlets, many types of bread, crepes and other warm items.  Elias' appetite was still pretty off and he barely ate. Lauren did a bit better, and Ruben was thoroughly enthralled, particularly with the papaya juice.

By 6am we were done with breakfast and we went to look for Ismael who had just arrived at the hotel lobby. He took us to a van, to take us to Poroy and to the train station. He first showed us our tickets, round trip tickets for the train, round trip bus tickets and our tickets to Machu Picchu. He explained that the train used to leave from Cusco, but it took 4.5 hours to Aquas Calientes. Now the train leaves from Poroy - 20 minutes by car, but  it only takes 3 hours. The trick is getting to Poroy.

The car took us passed the Cathedral and then winding up some crazy one laned streets out of town. The houses on the hillside are just amazing - how people build and live in these things is just astounding. The houses vary - some can be nice, most are really pretty ramshackle - made of adobe mud or pieced together from various bits of building materials. Dogs run about. It's a bit surreal as we (the tourists with money) are driving past people in their day to day lives. Some stand and watch as we go by, others just go about their work.

Finally we came to a larger two laned road that leveled off. At one point Ismael commented on the lack of speed limits on the road and asked about our speed limits - 50 km or so on roads. Lauren told him that yes, we have posted speed limits, but it doesn't mean that they always get followed, it only means that you get a ticket if you get caught by the police. He also commented on the truck carrying a caterpillar tractor that was barely tied down and how we'd likely not see that in the U.S. Lauren agreed.

There is a slideshow for this days worth of pictures.

Ismael left us at the train station and we boarded right on time. Our seats were separated and Lauren sat across and one row behind from where Elias and Ruben were sitting. Unfortunately we were facing backwards, but the views were no less spectacular, particularly since the top of the car also had windows. Shortly after we left they served us a breakfast tea service in terra cotta cups and saucers. Elias drank some Coke Zero, ate 1 grape and refused all other food.

The train took us through through a river valley (as trains usually do) and we were surrounded by either terraced farms and fields, or high canyons. One oddity they warned us about - after going through the valley where they grow most of the corn and quinoa for the Cusco area, the train traverses hillsides by doing switchbacks down the steep cliffs by alternately running backwards and forwards.

Another oddity which confused both Lauren and Ruben was which way we were headed. We figured out that we are Northern hemisphere biased. The sun was rising to the east and we were heading away from it. However, we were "felt" as though we were heading South west. What we neglected to account for was that the sun rises and sets with a north bias in the Southern hemisphere and all the celestial clues we have about which way is N, S, E, or W is completely confounded by them not behaving as they "normally" do. Ruben is hoping for a clear night sky and not to lose his mind as he tries to rationalize this. It is oddly disconcerting as we both typically have good navigation skills when we can reason about the time of day and the position of the sun, and all those "truths" are not applicable here.

The types of countryside, flora, people, animals and types of houses held a fascination for Lauren but she was unable to grab any good pictures from her backwards seating arrangement. Kids still wave to the train as it drives on by. We stopped in Ollantaytambo and another passenger came on board and took the emtpy seat beside her, making it more difficult for her to turn around to look forward. The canyons became even morefertile and dense beyond the stop. Even Elias commented on how tall the canyons are. Just before we arrived Ruben managed to convince Elias to drink a sprite and eat a Z-Bar, even though the Z-bar wasn't his favorite flavor.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes at 9:50 and found our guide Raquel - a small woman who also spoke English, Spanish and Quechua. We checked in with her, then dropped our bags, minus the food, water, cameras and rain coats (oh and the Lakeside Sentinel fork!) with our hotel drop - which felt very weird just to leave our bags with some random stranger on the street. They did give us official looking bag check tickets and Raquel assured us that was the right thing to do. We also visited the bathroom before following her and her green and yellow flat (because she's so small - her words!) through the town market to the bus station. There are so many things that are tempting to buy although we've been told it's more expensive up here than in Cusco.
The bus ride was an experience. Elias was quite nervous. It's a 1/2 hour, 1 lane road full of switchbacks and the drivers take it at what seems like a really fast speed. At one point a bus going down met up with us, they had to back up a bit to find a place where we could safely pass. We saw a few people hiking up the mountain, which looked like an interesting idea - there are even stairs in places.

Finally we arrived at the top and we were given 10 minutes to go to the bathroom and get a snack. The bathroom was the first experience - we had to pay a Sol to go in... and you have to grab toilet paper on the way in, there is none there. This means you have to make a decision as to what kind of visit it will be before going in. Very troubling, particularly if you don't get enough paper. Ruben finally got Elias a ham sandwich which we were told we could sneak in to keep with the group. It was the first thing he agreed he would eat pretty much in 36 hours. We showed our tickets to the gate (and strangely our tickets needed our names, and our passport IDs) and went through.

The first part of the climb was really steep. Elias was still incredibly grumpy and very nervous about the climb but we slowly got him to eat more and more. We stopped here and there, partly to catch our respective breaths, partly to not pass another group and partly to hear Raquel tell us about the history  of the place. We took a ton of pictures.

As the tour progressed three things happened 1) the food hit Elias' blood stream 2) Lauren's stomach began to cramp terribly, she thinks either because of a reaction to the acetazolamide or the acetazolamide and dramamine together and 3) Raquel's explanations of some of the formations at the site (particularly in the temples) kept claiming scientific proof from NASA and other "scientifically proven" sources to mystic energy at the site. Ruben, stealing heavily from Patton Oswald, commented quietly to Lauren "I'm going to punch all the tofu on the planet if I have to listen to people talk about energy vortexes."  He would to do this tour again with an actual scientist, historian, archaeologist or  engineer.

The tour ended after 1pm and after a brief pause to talk to Elias and give Lauren a bit of a rest from her really badly aching stomach, we headed back down to the entrance of the site. None of us were up for snack food or the buffet, so we decided to have lunch in the really nice restaurant in the hotel at Tampu at the Sanctuary Lodge. One thing made this all the worth it: it gave us access to the hotel bathrooms where we didn't have to pay for the bathrooms or pre-decide toilet paper needs. Lunch, including desert, was wonderful and meanwhile it started pouring outside. Elias even ate half a burger and saved the other half for later, and most of the desert. We waited for a while to see if the rain cleared and Lauren's stomach settled (it mostly did) and eventually wandered back to the site. We convinced Elias to go back out for a little while, and there were very few people there - as with our trip to Disneyland the rain made all the non Seattle-ites run away. It was wonderful. We did meet another family from Sacramento and a woman named Sioban from Santa Clara. Ruben found the entrance to Wayapicchu - which he's contemplating climbing tomorrow.  Lauren was happy because she got to explore the areas which were hard for her because her stomach was hurting so much the first time around - this time it was much more enjoyable.

We came back down to the bus around 3:45pm. The bus almost had a head on collision with another bus as it went down the mountain, but they somehow averted that. We had the driver drop us right off in front of the hotel Sumaq and walked into the lobby.

There are only like 11 patrons in the hotel tonight. We have been treated really well. It's a beautiful hotel anyway, right along side of the rushing river. They are doing work (by hand? No Caterpillar tractor equipment) to dig a trench right in front at the moment, but that's only during the day. Our room is off the back - but right under the train tracks - LITERALLY  the train tracks are 5 feet away and about 10 feet up out our back slider. It was noisy until about 11pm, then it stopped).

The desk clerk served us Coca tea and some home made potato chips with a very tasty guacamole while we waited for our room keys and she told us all about our services.  Our bags were ready. Elias took the porter to our room (Ruben gave him a tip to give to the man) while Ruben and Lauren finished their snack. It's odd to be able to give him such freedom.

Sweet cakes were available from 4-5:30 and Pisco sours were available in the bar from 5:30 - 6:30. We just missed the Pisco sours but we did have an absolutely delectable dinner at 6:30 that was included in the price of the hotel.  The deserts, if possible, were even better than the dinners.

The rest of the evening was just spent catching up and resting in the room. Tomorrow is a rest day until we take the train back to Poroy where we will be met by Ismael to be taken back to Casa Andina.


Songs heard in Peruvian flute music:
"Love Hurts"
"Killing Me Softly" and "Fernando by Abba"