We have decided to not do the
Huyana Picchu hike so we can sleep in a bit.
Breakfast buffet items more or less the same as yesterday except today there is bacon instead of sausage. I again have the mate de coca tea which I have grown to love. I have been eating light breakfasts-mainly fruit and toast. Luckily my husband and I have not had any problems with altitude sickness. The hotel has told us they will arrange to have someone bring our bags over to the train station about 30 minutes before departure. A nice gesture as now we don't have to return to the hotel after our Machu Picchu site visit today. I give reception the details of our Peru Rail train departure. Check out was very easy. Staff has been wonderful. We would stay here again.
We take the short walk into town and observe lots of the green buses passing us by on their way up to MP. One right after another. There are lots more people at the boarding area/line for the
bus than we saw yesterday. It's 8:15 AM so I guess more people try to get to MP early?? However, the line moves quickly and we get seats on the right side of the bus so I can get pictures of the scenery and signage. There is a lot of mist/fog around the mountains. We arrive to the MP site around 9:00 AM and there are tons of people waiting to enter!! My husband thought it would take forever to get in but the line moves quickly and after 10 minutes or so we're through the entrance. Today we follow the arrows for a
different circuit that concentrates on the right side of the ruins. The workers' houses. The Royal Tomb. Temple of the Sun. Temple of the Condor. Tres portadas/3 doors. The ritual fountains. The Royal Palace. Check point to climb Huayna Picchu. The Sacred Rock. We exit the site around 12:30 PM satisfied that we have experienced all that we wanted. Weather again today was sunny and hot. Today I did not bring my video camera or the heavy SLR camera. Despite applying lots of sunscreen both my husband and I have sunburn-not bad-on our arms and faces. As we exit I get our passports stamped again with the MP stamp. There are hordes of people waiting for a bus and the line for the bus seems to go on forever. This wait to get on the bus was much longer than yesterday. Maybe 20-30 minutes. Too late I remember that I had wanted to check out the gift shop! I should have done that yesterday. Oh well.... We have spent a total of almost 9 hours exploring Machu Picchu. I'm so glad we did this before we got too much older. It is a physical trip and we are in our 70s.
People lining up for the bus to Machu Picchu on May 5, 2017
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Busy right before the entrance
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Entrance ticket for Machu Picchu on May 5, 2017
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| Tons of people earlier in the morning |
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| More cloud cover in the morning |
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| Awesome! |
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| Royal Tomb |
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| Temple of the Sun |
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Temple of the Sun
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Ritual fountain
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Temple of the Sun
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Contrasting walls
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Such precision and artistry
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| Temple of the Condor |
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| Temple of the Condor |
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Sacred Rock
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Check point entry to Huyana Picchu climb/hike
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Three doorways
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| Another marvelous day at Machu Picchu |
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| Very crowded today |
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Line for the bus back to AC
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| This hotel is steps away from the entrance to MP |
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| Much longer wait for a bus today |
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| Sign on the way back to town |
Back in town we have time before our
train and since we don't have to return to the hotel for our bags we decide to wander around. We stopped at
Incontri where we had pizza our first night in AC as we had noticed that they also sold
gelato. My husband has 1 scoop of
Inca Gold and 1 scoop of
cappuccino while I have 1 scoop of
fresia/
strawberry and 1 scoop of
rum raisin. Delicious. Cost 40 soles. We wander down to a market area by the train station and I buy a Peru hat for my son-in-law. Lots of colorful merchandise. Other souvenirs I have bought so far are things I try to get for myself on every trip- a magnet that says Peru and some Peru pins. We decide to head over to the train station where we will catch our 4:22 PM train to
Ollantaytambo.
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Statue in town
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| Inca Gold and cappuccino gelato |
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Strawberry and rum raisin gelato
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| Town |
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Town
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Town
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Souvenirs at the market
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Souvenirs at the market
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| Souvenirs at the market |
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| Hats I bought |
Oh dear! I forgot to bring our train ticket vouchers with me and we can't get through the gate into the waiting area without them. We will have to wait until our bags arrive from the hotel. After a short time we spot a guy with our bags. I get the
train vouchers out and now we can enter the waiting area that has a cafeteria and some other shops. But no time to look around as it's time for us to board the train. We are in Carriage E, seats 47 and 48. As we walk to our seats I notice they are on the left side but when the train starts we are going in a direction where our seats are on the right side. We again have the Urubamba River view. There is a choice of a hot or cold beverage. We opt for the mate de coca tea but there are juices, coffee, water. For our snack we get a square of pizza which was ok but not as good as the pizza we had at Incontri. There is also entertainment-some guy in an animal mask and a fashion show. Several passengers bought items from the fashion show. Our seating mates will be staying at the same hotel as us in
Ollantaytambo. Greg is a retired dancer for the NYC Metropolitan Ballet and his husband is Arnaldo who is a professor of Latin American studies at NYU. Lovely guys. Easy to talk to.
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Train ticket Machu Picchu to Ollantaytambo for May 5, 2017
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| Our seat mates Greg and Arnaldo |
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Fashion show
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| Entertainment |
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| Empty train carriage |
We arrive in
Ollantaytambo at 6:21 PM. Easy check in at the
El Albergue Hotel. We have room #11 which has a view of
Veronica Mountain. Our room has a queen bed, a twin bed, and a futon. There are fresh calla lilies in a vase on the desk and a fragrant mint plant in the bathroom which acts as a natural room freshener. There is a hair dryer, toiletries are from a dispenser. Shower/tub combo. Bathrobes. A safe. We have a small verandah with 2 chairs. Our
dinner reservation at the
hotel restaurant is for 7:30 PM so we have time to freshen up and unpack a few things. We are staying here for 2 nights. May 5-7, 2017. Cost $437.80 for the 2 nights.
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| Hotel entrance |
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| Hotel lobby area |
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| El Albergue Hotel reception |
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Hotel sitting area
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Our room #11
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| Comfortable beds |
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| Bathroom |
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| Desk |
The
hotel restaurant has its own organic farm so all the herbs, vegetables are fresh and home grown. The pasta is homemade also. I have the chorizo puttanesca with farm fresh vegetables and my husband has the farm fresh grilled vegetables in olive oil and herbs. Choice of pasta-fettucini or spaghetti. Great tasting lemonade and an appetizer of mashed potato with chicken and herbs rounded out our dinner. Intriguing dessert choices but too full. There is a 10% gratuity added to the bill. We charged our dinner to the room. When I got my hotel bill at check out I saw that our dinner was $21.30 with the gratuity included. I gave our server extra 6 soles which surprised her. There was live music in the form of an older Quechua blind man singing and playing the Peruvian harp. Very nice. I gave him 6 soles in his tip box. Dinner was fantastic. The restaurant menu has a good variety and everything we saw at the other tables looked amazing. The place was full and it's not very big so I would recommend a reservation for dinner just to be safe. We ran into our train seat mates who were also having diner with some other friends of theirs. It was nice to say hello!
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