Today is Grammie's 84th birthday and I was sad I wasn't back at home to spend it with her. Last year, when we didn't get to do anything, I took her a balloon, sang happy birthday to her and spent some time catching her up on what's been going on at that point. This year we were in Peru and I let her know before I went that I wouldn't be able to come visit on her birthday and she said that was fine and that I could come visit her afterwards and tell her all about the trip. I did take her with me so she could see Machu Picchu with me on her birthday. This is the third birthday we've had since she's been gone.
We got up at 5 a.m., got ready and made sure we had everything ready and met everyone downstairs for breakfast.
We got to check off on a card of what we wanted for food the day before when we checked in. I had French toast, Melba toast, fruit and sugar free juice. The French toast was small and super fancy...almost more like a dessert than a breakfast item. The food was pretty good. We finished up and went back to our rooms to grab out bags and to make sure we had all of our stuff before going downstairs. We left our bigger packs with the front desk and only took our day packs again with us. We walked to the bus stop around 7 a.m. and showed them our tickets for the second day and got on to bus 20. This time we didn't sit in the back but in one of the rows next to each other.
In about 20-25 minutes and 14 switchbacks we were back up at the entrance of Machu Picchu and it was cloudy and rainy. The hotel up there was swimming with film crew people. They were up there filming the new Transformer movie, Rise of the Beasts (2022). We got out our passports and they scanned them and handed them back to us again. I'm still upset we didn't get our Machu Picchu stamp in our passports. We walked in, got organized and decided as a group to hike up to the upper platform again, similar to what we did the day before. We were supposed to hike up to Huayna Picchu (the mountain you see in the background of the ruins) but it was closed by the government because of Covid. Our travel agent, Adam, got us two passes to Machu Picchu instead.
We started up and had to go slow because we didn't want to kill Amy because the elevation stuff was getting to her. We made our way up to the platform and it was still a bit cloudy this morning and our view was obstructed with rolling clouds crawling up the mountain side, due to the wind. I had read that it's like this every morning to early afternoon and then it burns off and is nice between April and September. When the southern hemisphere is in its rainy season (October to March) all bets are off and it may not burn off. That is why most travel sites tell you to visit during April to September for the best view of Machu Picchu. We took several pictures from up here and then started making our way down.
There weren't as many people in the morning (plus it was Monday and not a weekend) as there are in the afternoon. However, the afternoons are when you're able to get better unobstructed views of the city and surrounding mountains. It didn't take us as long to get down the trail since we didn't have to squeak by anyone or wait for slow people to take the steps down. We all went at our own pace and helped Amy down the mountain a few times since she had that plate in her ankle from her Hawaii mishap. We reached the stone structures and got to see some llama's hanging around the grassy areas nearby.
We enjoyed some of the places that were closed to the public the day before such as the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Condor. We stopped many times, took a lot of pictures, soaked in the magnificent views just like the day before. This place is just so amazing and I highly suggest to anyone who is able and has the extra money to do this trip because you will not regret it. I was just thankful to finally be able to come here. The uncertainty of when we would be able to come and how much more money we would have to put out stressed me out and wore me down. Luckily, our travel agent from Peru for Less was able to save most of our deposit. We just had to pay maybe $500 or so to be able to go once Peru allowed people to travel.
Covid is a HUGE waste of time and I really thought the delta variant would ruin this trip too. I was really nervous around mid-August when it was getting out of control. For a few days I thought maybe we made another mistake by booking this trip. However, I really needed to use my vacation time because I got a notification sometime in June stating that come September 21st I need to use my hard-earned vacation hours or they will start going away. I honestly didn't think I would ever get this email at work because I was pretty good at using my vacation leave. Well, I acquired so much of it during 2020 because there was nowhere to go and I was tired of being at home and teleworking so a staycation was not an option! Luckily it all worked out and we were able to come to Peru.
As we made our way down, the clouds were starting to get higher and we could see a little bit of blue sky. We could see more of the llamas in the courtyard, some were up wandering around eating grass and others were laying down or rolling around on their back. The llamas looked like they were having a good time. As we walked on the path along the courtyard, we saw some llamas up close and they were munching on some grass. We were able to get a few selfies with them. Apparently, there are 14 of them who live up here and they are monitored by the people who work here. I did do the two earthcaches, El Granito en el Machu Picchu (GC6JPWF) and Machu Picchu Fault Line Earthcache (GC2Q1TG). Both were pretty easy to complete. The first one had to do with the granite and the structures on site and the second one talked about the two fault lines that Machu Picchu sits in between. I had to do a little bit of research on them when I got home to log them.
We walked around the corner, gave our three coca leaves offering (which is used as a greeting, as a thanks or as a spiritual offering to Pachamama) and made our way through the stone house sector and we didn't see any rainbows today. We walked past several members of the Transformer film crew who were all carrying a lot of equipment. Most were sweating and all of them were out of breath. One of the film crew members, who was from Atlanta, talked to us for a little bit. We continued our hike until we got to the end of the trail. The guy from Atlanta walked by us again and told us to go see their movie which will be out sometime in 2022. I might have to now because we were here while they were filming some of the principal photography. We took a few more pictures and then headed back to the bus with our return tickets and face shields.
This time we were on bus 21 on the way back down to Aguas Calientes. It took another 20-25 minutes to get down the hill. Once we were down and off the bus, Amy wanted something sweet to eat. We asked someone in town and he suggested the place right across the street from where we were. We walked down to Toto's House and were seated right away out on the patio with a view of the river. We all took turns using the restroom, which was very clean, and then ordered food. Amy ordered a Coke and a brownie, Rhonda got a Coke Zero and a short bread cookie, Mom got a chocolate chip cookie, water and wings, which we shared and I got a Coke Zero. The food was very good and the BBQ sauce on the wings was sweet but not over powering. We hung out, ate, paid and used the restroom one more time.
We had some time to waste until we had to be up at the train so we went and browsed the markets barely even a block away from the restaurant. Everyone found a few things including myself. We spent about an hour or so shopping and then went to the hotel to get our bags they held for us. We all used the restroom one more time, grabbed our bags and headed back up the hill to the train station. We didn't have to wait long, which was nice, we had our return tickets out and our face shields on and ready to go. We got through the gate and then sat in the waiting area until it was time for our train to depart.
We didn't have to wait long, so we grabbed our stuff and walked to the B train. They looked at our tickets and we boarded and found our seats, I sat in seat 36, Mom sat next to me and Amy and Rhonda across from us. We sat on the train for about a half hour so we hung out and I journaled for a bit while we waited to depart. We finally started moving around 3:20 p.m. and headed west back to Ollantaytambo. It seemed like it was slower going back than going there. We saw the scenery go from tropical rainforest mountain back to dry desert hills. I spent most of the time writing in my journal.
About a half hour into our train ride, a guy dressed up in an outfit did a dance for us. He also got Amy to dance with him for a few seconds. Yes, we took pictures and a short video of it. Then they did a fashion show for us and then asked the train passengers if they wanted to buy anything they saw. Of course, Amy wanted a scarf. She picked the one she wanted and couldn't pay with her card right away because there was no cell service, so the lady had to come back later.
Meanwhile, we got some service and the vet's office called but the service was spotty so Mom let it go to voicemail. Dad had taken Chloe to the vet for another shot for a UTI. He wrote us back after sending him a message, "the vet tried calling me." He said, "They said that she passed and sent her home." Mom and I were like what? Is Dad sending us a cryptic message? To us, it sounded like she died. Mom's whole demeanor changed because she thought her cat died. He sent us back the same message but in all caps. Then I wrote him back telling him to look carefully at his message because it could easily be taken out of context. I'm sure he thought it was funny. Her cat didn't die. She passed the vet's test and Dad took her home.
The lady came back to get money from Amy and then she said she would bring her the scarf in a while. We were getting close to Ollantaytambo, where out driver was waiting for us. We arrived at the station, put our table away, grabbed our bags, the lady handed Amy her scarff and we got off. We went through the arrivals gate and looked for our driver who had the Larson x4 sign up so we could see it. We followed him to the van, threw our stuff into the back and piled in. We were now on our way back to Cusco, which was going to be about a two-hour drive.
Our driver took us a different way back to Cusco. We got off of the main road and turned onto the CU-110 at Pachar, drove through some small towns called Pumatales, Rapchi and Huarocondo and a lot of them were farming towns. Lots of open farm land and people herding their livestock back to the property. We saw several herds of cows. We spent most of the time chatting in the back amongst ourselves. At one point, we came across two landslides that were pretty bad. Motorists had made their own paths around the landslides and we were not sure how long they've been there or how often the Peruvian road workers fix these issues. We aren't sure if they have the appropriate road equipment or resources to fix it right away.
Somewhere along the highway, between Rapchi and Huarocondo, we were stopped by the police just as day turned to dusk. We all got nervous because the last time Amy and Mom were stopped by the police in Ecuador in 2018 the police wanted bribes--because the police were corrupt there. We weren't sure if it was like that in Peru or not. We were stopped for at least 5-7 minutes while our driver took out some paperwork out of his glovebox (we assumed) to show the police. The police let us go and continue on our way. It got darker and darker as we drove to Cusco. Once we were outside the city limits the traffic got worse. We were getting into town as everyone was getting off work and heading home.
We snaked out way through the windy one-way narrow roads and eventually got to our Cusco hotel, Casa San Blas Boutique around 7:15 p.m. We were going to stay here for two more nights. He stopped the van in the road and we hurried out with our bags since we were blocking the road. We gave him a tip, thanked him and went inside to check back in. The desk clerk told us everything was good to go and our bags were already up in our rooms. We didn't get to keep our original rooms. This time Mom and I were in room 206 and Amy and Rhonda were in 212. We all got settled in and then decided to get our dirty clothes together to do laundry since our hotel offered it. I took a quick shower and Mom went downstairs to grab a couple laundry bags. Mom talked to Amy and Rhonda for a while as I separated the laundry into piles. We filled out the tickets and crammed our stuff into two bags. Mom took them back downstairs.
I sat in the bed and posted some pictures to Facebook, talked to Ben for a little bit and ate some of my tuna fish and crackers since it's been a while since the last time we ate any food. I spent some time charging phones, my watch and my laptop. I listened to my crime podcasts for some of the night because we couldn't figure out the television again. This one we couldn't stream our phones to. I ended up going to bed around 11 p.m.
Next Adventure: Peru: Free Day in Cusco, Choco Museo, San Pedro Market and Morena Peruvian Kitchen (Day 8)
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