South America-Day 3- Lima & Ollantaytambo- "Plane, train, & automobile"

Left our hotel at 4:30 to catch our 7:05 flight to Cusco. We arranged for a cab the night before with our hotel but asked them to call the company (green taxi) that we took from the airport since it was a less expensive option than the hotel's affiliate but meant we didn't need to look for a cab before the sun was up. The Doubletree was amazing both in service and accommodations and we were sad to leave. We're staying at the Hilton when we come back through and I'm a little sad we're not bookending the peru portion of the trip at the hotel. Anyway, we get to the airport in the pitch black with no trouble and checked our bag (gulp). Grabbed a quick bite at the airport to bring on the plane, tried unsuccessfully to fill our water bottles (why is there no drinking fountain?), and then got our carry-on bag taken away and gatechecked, to our obvious frustration given the energy we've put into measuring, weighing, packing strategically etc. The flight itself was quick--about an hour and a half from lima to cusco. Flying through the mountains was beautiful when we were at the right altitude to see properly and while we didn't follow this advice, we heard the views of cusco on the lefthand side of the flight were neat as we flew in. We grabbed our bags without incident and negotiated with a few drivers to take us the hour and a half drive to Ollantaytambo.

We jumped in a car which then took us to town and put us into a different car for the longer drive. A little confusing but not concerning and we determined the first guy who speaks strong English is the airport agent who take you to one of his drivers while he goes back to the airport to drum up more business. We think. We drove through small towns and up and down hills until we were faced with the very green andes. A few small towns later and we made it into Ollantaytambo. One quick travel planning note here: most people seem to take the train to ollantaytambo but Brennan's research showed it's actually slightly quicker to hire a taxi and definitely cheaper.We dropped our bags at the hotel we're staying at on Friday; a little confusing given that today is Thursday but that will become clearer. The hotel stored both of our bags for the day so we picked up our carry-on as we boarded the train but left our bigger bag in their storage so we didn't have to lug it up and back needlessly. Awesome strategy courtesy of Brennan-- obviously.

So now we had some time in Ollantaytambo. We started off by walking through the town square and the small inca village section. Cool fact- this section is organized in the corn cob pattern of rows that thus culture is apparently known for. We wanted a lighter lunch than we had so far (everywhere wants to give you a multi course meal, which no matter how cheap, we just don't necesssarily want!) so we found empanadas at a café and sat in the town square and had them with a bottle of Inca Kola. We had seen advertisements for this yellow soda everywhere, and come on, it's called Inca Kola- we had to try it. I think it will be the only bottle we have-- it tastes like bubble gum or tutti frutti and was just too sweet- oh well!

With this sugar rush coursing in our bloodstreams, we headed up to the mountain across from the Ollantaytambo archaeological site. There are a few ruins up there (called Pinkyulluna) that were really neat. Had to battle a bit of the heights fear, but definitely worth it and a highlight of the area for us. It's always fun when there aren't many people around and a site of this caliber is free, very cool. We took some neat pictures of the bigger site as well since we were.opposite them and were headed down when it started to rain. The weather seems to flip back and forth in the winter here but it wasn't too terrible and we headed over to the market and the main site once we reached the bottom.

Market was filled with the chotchkes you might expect for this area-- little trinkets, woven goods, ponchos, hats etc. We wanted to go to the archaeological site for obvious reasons, but the cost was extremely high (140 soles for two, 70 each-- more than Machu Picchu) and surprising so we debated back and forth but finally decided to go for it. The site was fun and a good way to pass part of the afternoon, but we still thought the cost was higher than the value when we left. Anyway, we spent a little over an hour and covered the whole thing from top to bottom. The views were neat and now we took pictures.of the other side we had hiked earlier. Climbing up and down terraces and seeing remnants of the original structures was interesting-- its really just fun to be able to walk all over such an ancient settlement and climb around and explore!

On the way back into town, Brennan stopped and got a bronze llama figurine as a souvenir and then we went to the hearts café since we were exhausted and needed wifi to plan our machu picchu trip in more detail. Its a cool cafe that gives back to the town: you can read more about it here and here. While drinking a hot chocolate and a beer (guess who had which), we dug into our plans for storming the site and then headed out into a rainy evening. Our hotel where the bags were stored is directly next to the train station and we had noticed some stalls in our way into town that morning. One in particular stood out since there were a bunch of locals there so we found two seats and tucked into a cheap dinner of rice/egg/veggies and rice/chicken/veggies.

Headed back to El Albergue, reallocated our stuff between the two bags and then stored the big one. Grabbed the 7pm train up to Aguas Calientes,which is the town that services Machu Picchu, and arrived in total darkness at 8:30. First impressions were scary since there is a market attached to the station which was deserted and creepy at this hour. We could also hear shouting that turned out to be a positive political rally for the mayoral election that's happening there this week. Loud but not dangerous. After a few minutes of searching we found the bus station and bought tickets up to Machu. Ran up the hill to our hotel,  checked in, and set about going to bed as quickly as possible.  The hotel was okay; more the type where you check the sheets before you get in but serviceable and had both hot water and satellite tv which was all weneeded as we packed the backpack and prepped for the big day.