Our alarm went off at 7 a.m. and you could hear everyone's showers going because the pipes were either exposed somewhere or the walls were very thin. Mom eventually got up and took hers. I got up and started to get ready. We had to check out so we made sure we had everything with us. It was about 8 a.m. and we walked next door to see if Amy and Rhonda were ready to go to breakfast. They were. We walked to the restaurant, sat down and then went to the buffet table. It was pretty much the same thing as all the other breakfasts, fruits, cereals, yogurt, ham, cheese, teas, coffee, breads and jellies. I had some corn flakes with vanilla yogurt with some bee honey. I had a piece of bread, some fresh squeezed orange juice and some fruit. We ate, chatted and then finished getting ready back at our room. Again, we made sure we had everything.
We walked to the lobby with all of our luggage and our driver was there waiting for us. He helped us with our bags into the back and we set off for the train station in Ollantaytambo. Rhonda saw a dead cow on the side of the road so Amy talked about when she and Josh lived in Australia and hit a kangaroo with their car. We drove through the narrow streets and people were in line for their Covid shots again. We turned left and followed the street to the train station, PeruRail.
Our driver helped grab our bags out of the back of the van and directed us towards the building. At first we weren't sure where we were suppose to go but someone pointed us to the correct line. There were two lines, locals and tourists, so we got in the tourists line once we figured it out. There were a lot of people trying to sell masks, face shields, food and beverages while we waited in line. We got our tickets out, got double masked and put our face shields on. We sat in the train station until about 10:05 a.m. and then we boarded the train. We were in train C and seats 44-48. Our train took off around 10:30 and it was going to be an hour and a half train ride.
I was dumb and forgot to pack my games in my back pack so we didn't play games during the long train ride. Instead, I wrote in my journal while everyone else took pictures and chatted about random things. We rode through several small towns such as Tanccac, Piskacu and Chachabamba. Most of these small towns were farming towns who grew lots of corn and had many herds of cows, sheep and goats. The railroad followed the topography of the Urubamba River. We saw huge mountains on both sides of us, some with snow tops, there was some cloud over and we went through some patches of light rain. We twisted and turned through the canyon, went through eight tunnels and finally arrived in the Machu Picchu valley.
We put our table away, grabbed our stuff and got off the train. We used the restroom before we left the train station and met up with our guide, Peter. He escorted us to our hotel, Casa Andina, so we could check in. We got our rooms and took our stuff up. Mom and I were in room 207 and Amy and Rhonda were in room 409. We relaxed for about a half hour, got our day packs together and chatted with Ben for a few minutes. I also ate one of my tuna and crackers because I was hungry. We met everyone downstairs in the lobby so he could walk us to the Machu Picchu bus just up the street from the hotel.
We didn't have to wait in line to get on a bus very long. We showed them our tickets and found a spot on bus 9 in the back so we could all sit together. Peter found an available spot in the front. It took about 20-25 minutes for the bus to get up the 14 switch backs along the mountain side. We tried getting pictures as we got higher and higher of the mountains but it was really hard with all the bumps and the trees obscuring our views. We drove past a hotel and a restaurant, which I wasn't expecting up here because I thought this place was more primitive. We got off the bus, got out our passports and tickets and stood in the entry line to get into Machu Picchu. I was so excited.
I heard that they stamped your passports when you entered Machu Picchu but again, we were disappointed when they just scanned them into the computer and handed them back to us. This must be what they do now because of Covid. Lame.
We all went inside and Peter started the guided tour of Machu Picchu. It was a really nice afternoon so we were going to be able to have a clear view of everything. Peter stopped us along the way up the staircase to tell us interesting information and for us to catch our breath (we had to do this several times) and wearing face masks made it harder to breathe.
Once we got to the first platform, I looked at my phone to see where the geocaches were and there was a traditional cache nearby called Para Emmy n Sappie (GC19941) and I just happened to be right next to it. I moved a rock and there was a piece of paper just sitting there. I wrote our names on it and put it back right where I found it. The cache owners mentioned on the cache page that this cache goes missing a lot and if it was missing just to leave something in its place for future cachers. We had to tell Peter what geocaching was and he thought it was cool.
We continued to the main upper platform. We had a choice of the lower or upper and we chose the upper. We walked on the original part of the Incan Trail, which that alone was utterly awesome, because it has been there for centuries unchanged.
We reached the top of the upper platform after many stairs and lots of oxygen breaks, the view was stunning! This is one of the reasons why I came here. It is so hard to put into words what it was like to actually be at Machu Picchu. It's been one of the many things on my list I've wanted to see since I was a little kid. I stood there thinking, I can't believe I am actually here! I made sure I did the virtual cache Machu Picchu (GC7B9HF) while we were up on the top platform.
Machu Picchu is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World and is consistently on top of any traveler's list. I've talked to many people over the years and this is definitely a place that all of them have said they wanted to go someday. We spent the next three hours making our day down the trail towards the bottom of the hill, around the structures and out to the exit. There were quite a few people here this afternoon we had to walk around and keep our distance from. We had to wear our masks at all times except when we were taking pictures. There were guards all over Machu Picchu making sure people followed directions...if you didn't they would get after you. We took a lot of pictures, listened to Peter's facts, stories, tidbits and learning about each area/sector of Machu Picchu as we walked through it. This was totally worth coming to Peru for and it was hard waiting a year and a half for it though.
As we got closer to the exit, we saw a couple chinchillas playing around in the corners of the structures and a double rainbow. Peter told us that it's not that often you get to see a double rainbow at Machu Picchu and to consider ourselves blessed to have seen one while we were here. We walked back to the bus, got our return tickets out and found a spot in the back on bus 3. It took us another 20-25 minutes to get back down to town. We were dropped off at the Machu Picchu sign near the bus stop. Peter escorted us back to our hotel and we all thanked one other for a memorable time. We gave him a tip and went about the rest of our day.
We went to our rooms, I took off my socks and hiking shoes, put on some new socks and my regular shoes and did some internetting for a while. We had plans to meet up with Amy and Rhonda around 6 p.m. to get some dinner. Peter had suggested a place called Full House near our hotel.
We met downstairs and made the short walk from our hotel to the restaurant. We were immediately seated and sat next to the river but it was dark by then so it really didn't matter. Rhonda ordered gnocchi and sparkling water, Amy got beef and noodles and water and Mom and I shared another pizza and each drank water...mostly to save our sols. The pizza is really good in Peru. We ate chatted and paid our bill. Our waiter Roy, was very good. We thanked him for such great service, left the restaurant and walked around the market for a little bit. We browsed to see what items were available so we could get ideas on what we wanted to get the next day before we got on the train to go back to Ollantaytambo. Each of us took a photo with the Machu Picchu sign before grabbing some drinks at a small store on our way back to the hotel.
We said our goodnights to Amy and Rhonda and told them we would see them at 6 a.m. for breakfast. Mom and I got comfortable, did some internetting, turned on Sunday Night Football (Rams and Bears) since it actually allowed us to this time. I took a quick shower while Mom watched the football game and then she showered while I watched the football game. I posted some of our pictures to Facebook and Mom got ready for bed. I spoke to Ben on Facebook Messenger for about 20 minutes. I watched the rest of the game and the Rams won but I think I beat Kevin in Fantasy Football this week. I went to bed around 11:00 p.m. I couldn't get comfortable and the trains kept driving by at all hours of the night. I did eventually fall asleep but we had to be up by 5 a.m.
Next Adventure: Peru: Another Day at Machu Picchu, PeruRail Train Ride, Ollantaytambo and Back to Cusco (day 7)
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