Day 352 Sunday 23 March Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu, 1,5 hours by train)

Lots of dancing before the train leaves

Today was a day of School Fees and Chaos. Pie and Tex took it on them to book our train tickets to the main Inca Attraction,  1,5 hours away by train. But either they did not ask all the right questions or the Train Ticket Salesperson did not give them any info, but here we are, stuck without tickets into the  Site, even no bus tickets to the Site.

Now we know, now we are clever. We caught our train at 6h15 this morning. It was an amazing 1,5 hour ride, along the river, through the Rain Forrest. Stunning. The two conductors that served us coffee then  changed into Traditional Dress and then did a show in the passage of our coach.

When we arrived at Mochu Picchu we found a Guide and negotiated a price to show us around the Ruins. Then he asked us about our Entrance Tickets and Bus Tickets to the Ruins and we said “what tickets?” We then realised we needed to have more tickets than just the train tickets. Our guide Freddy then took us to the Ticket Office, and it being a Sunday, all tickets were sold out long ago. Thanks for the Train Ticket Lady who could have given us the Heads-Up that we are wasting our time!!!! So we now bought entry tickets for tomorrow morning, we also booked the early hour bus at 5h00, but the train to have gotten here is so expensive it works out cheaper for us to book a hotel here and not go back today to Ollantaytambo today, to the hotel we already paid for, to the hotel where my Laptop is, my toothbrush, pyjamas etc are. No, we are going to buy  toiletries to share and sleep here tonight and forfeit our accommodation there and pay to change our train ticket back, eina.

We went up the hill to the Hot Water Springs where I hired a Swimming Costume and a Towel and stepped into a Cannibal’s Pot where I cooked for a while. Then we had a beer in one of the many little streets, played Tourist and had a salad for lunch.

So this Blog is coming to you from my phone. All the buttons and places I knew where to click-on are now hidden. So not my finest blog, but tomorrow will be better, sorry.

Our Guide for tomorrow took us around, found us the right hotel, showed us where we need to eat Rodent tonight and the took us into the restaurant to choose our table next to the river and under the tapestry. I now need to buy a phone charger and new socks, and then I should be fine, out of my comfort zone yes, but fine.

And this short Blog ends now, tomorrow we will stay a 3rd day at Ollynthetambo before riding again on Tuesday. We gained 2 extra days when our TIPS came in 2 days and not 4 days. So we now used one day of those 2 extra days, so we can now visit and sleep at he highest town in the world on Wednesday, La Rinconada, 5100m high, lekker kop seer, hier kom ons.

Lekker Dag Julle, Luv Ja

Fleisch