Nope, nope, nope, not happening. Though that pretty much meant we were not going back at all. The morning lines for the bus to Machu Picchu are horrendous, then there's the 30 minute drive. We'd have maybe 30 minutes to wander to around before having to turn around to meet the train.
Oh well.
So we had a leisurely breakfast (for once) with no rush at all. Then we slowly made our way up to Machu Picchu Pueblo (town) - and saw the horrendous line for the bus. Eventually we stumbled our way to the "artisan's market" (in reality it's a shuk, but I'm sure nobody here knows the term).
We found a few things, wandered some more. Not all the stalls were open yet. Found the train station to use the bathroom. Wandered some more. Found a bench to sit on. By this time it was around 10:30ish and the stalls/shops were all looking pretty much the same. Besides, I said, I'm never going to find an elephant here, anyway {Random side note, in case you're not aware - I collect elephants. Long story}. Why don't we find the town square and see what's there?
When I stood up, something caught my eye in the booth right in front of me. Got closer...hmmm...is that an elephant?
Why yes it is! An black and white Inca elephant! How unique is that? I don't have a photo of it, because it's currently wrapped in newspaper.
With that, we left the market, stumbling around again to find the Plaza Mayor. Eventually stumbled upon it, as is tradition. Pleasant environment, with a giant Inca in the middle:
Every town square needs a giant Inca.
Also a beautiful little church:
Seats in the shade were hard to come by, and the sun was very strong. We had run out of ideas of things to do, and it wasn't even 11:00 a.m.
So we read our books and watched people go by.
At 11:30 we decided to have lunch, since nothing was mentioned about a snack on the train. I stuck to my Aji de Gallina, because it's the only thing I know that for sure doesn't have cilantro in it. Andy was braver and had a risotto relleno - looked like peppers stuffed with beef and vegetables. And cilantro.
We met everybody at the train with no problem at all.
Had a great time on the train, chatting away. We were so busy chatting that we missed the explanation of who this guy is:
He (I'm assuming that's a he) danced up and down the aisle for a bit. It was pretty funny.
Then the two servers provided a fashion show of alpaca sweaters, scarves, etc. I actually decided to buy a scarf - in purple, but they didn't have a purple one on their cart. No problem, they said, they would get one for me from the store at the train station.
But we pulled into the train station about 5 minutes later. The transaction was never completed (though I was promised it would take care of), but I gave up. I'm assuming there's another purple alpaca scarf out there in Peru somewhere.
As soon as we started walking towards the bus I could feel the Cuzco effect - too easy to lose my breath and a little light headed. Though fortunately not nearly as bad as a couple of days ago, it still slowed me to a crawl.
Another long, long bus ride back to Cuzco. Danny did try to keep us entertained with information about village life in the mountains. And including the story behind the Simon and Garfunkel song "El Condor Pasa" - apparently Paul Simon got the tune from the Cuzco/mountain guy who wrote it. The Cuzco guy said it was just a popular tune, which was then turned into a popular pop tune. The mountain Guy's son sued, yada yada, settled out of court.
At the halfway point, we stopped to take a break and for a great view of the Sacred Valley:
And the first hint that we were getting closer to Cuzco - the temperature had dropped considerably and I noticed that breathing wasn't quite as easy as it should be.
When we arrived in Cuzco, we had to transfer off the big bus into smaller vans because the streets of old Cuzco are not wide enough to accommodate the big bus. The van is not a great solution for me - the steps to get in and out are a lot higher, and the seat backs recline even in the most vertical position. This means I'm sitting upright without benefit of a seat back.
Fortunately (for the moment) it was only a 10 minute ride to the hotel.
It was really really cold now. The hotel lobby is open to the outside, so the lobby was cold, too. And more steps of course - the hotel is a converted hacienda.
After we signed our paperwork, got our room keys, the all important wifi password, and picked up our Machu PIcchu bags, we followed the bell hop to our room. Very slowly. Very very slowly.
We kinda landed in the room - at the very most, I thought I might make it to dinner in the hotel restuarant. But we decided not to bother with dinner at all, while we waited for the temperature in the room to rise a bit. Yep, we had to turn the heat on for the first time this trip.
Random side note - this being a fancy schmancy hotel, the bed is one of those super high beds? That actually I can't climb onto. Literally, I can't just sit or climb onto the bed. For now I'm using the wooden trash can as a step up.
Good news! The wifi works great! The best we've seen so far!
I'm hoping a good night's sleep and I'll be on my way to full acclimation to being at the top of the world. I really hope so, since we'll be at the top of the world until Wednesday when we return to Lima for our return flight home.
Buenos noches, amigos!
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