Aguas Calientes, literally translated as "hot waters" because of its thermal baths. I can't comment on this because I didn't visit any. I arrived Aguas Calientes at night, stayed overnight, woke up and went to Mach Picchu. I had a couple of hours in Aguas Calientes before my train back to Ollantaytambo followed by colectivo to Cusco. It was a long day but interestingly I wasn't really tired, I only napped for a bit on the train and colectivo, probably endorphin at work after seeing MP.
Aguas Calientes isn't big and the shops are mostly souvenir shops or restaurants. I flipped through the menus as I walked passed and noticed that they were more expensive that Ollantaytambo. I decided to walk to the market and have my lunch there.
I had the set lunch with starter of sopa trigo to olluco (wheat and olluco soup), lomo saltodo as main mel and agua de limón y sandía (lemon and watermelon water). Olluco is some sort of Andean tuber. Lomo saltado is a popular peruvian stir fry beef dish. It is usually done with yellow pepper and onion. This lunch set kept me full till night!
Lunch meal set cost S/9 (~USD 2.70 / ~AUD 3.75 / RM 11). While I was eating, I noticed there were other people who ordered only the main or just the soup and of course it was cheaper. It was only then that I know I don't have to have the set!
Then it started raining again. I guess I was very lucky that despite it rained when I was in MP but it stopped before I started hiking HP and I had good weather the whole time I was in MP. Nothing much to be done, I checked out the shops, got a postcard and posted out. I am convinced the said postcard is written off as my friend has not received it yet.
The rain stopped and I went back to the hostel and grabbed my back and went to the train station. After awhile, it started pouring. Oh and there was free wi-fi at the station.
I got the 16:22 Expedition 504 back to Ollantaytambo. The train took about 2 hours and right after reaching Ollantaytambo, I haggled for a colectivo to Cusco. I paid S/15 (~USD 4.50 / ~AUD 6.30 / ~RM 18.40) for this part of the travel. It took about 90 mins to 2 hours or so. I think if you are good at this monetary negotiation thingy, the price would be even lower, maybe S/5 cheaper.
I don't know if it was because I took the colectivo right after the arrival of train to Ollantaytambo or the traffic was always so busy but it took very long to get out of Ollantaytambo itself. There were a lot of stopping. I'm sure the colectivo driver felt the same because once we got out of town area, he made a turn to some construction looking area with no cars. From there he made many turns to similar looking half-way built constructions with no other vehicle aside from us. Once or twice he cut areas with some earthmoving vehicles and workers around.
Most of us just rested or slept but one of my fellow passenger got really worried and made a lady next to her to ask the driver where were we. It appeared that the driver was taking a short cut. So all was good. Worried fellow passenger was also quite chatty and tried to make conversation but nobody really responded as we were are drifting in and out of sleep, or just really not friendly according to her. Haha.
I made it to Cusco and checked in to Frankenstein Hostel at about 9pm. Good thing was that the colectivo dropped us just a block away from the hostel.
Side note: Melbourne needs to cool down!
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