The bus to Cusco was horribly warm during the night meaning we didn't sleep much, and we also got in on time at about half past 7 meaning we were really tired. We got a taxi to the hostel where we were given some coca tea for the altitude. We couldn't check in to the room until 1pm which meant we had loads of time to kill. We headed to the centre because we were starving and wanted something to eat, nothing was open but we had been told there was a McDonalds near the square.
We started walking and got lost almost immediately, the map didn't match the town at all, none of the street signs were even on the map and the ones on the map didn't seem to exist. We were walking around for a good 2 hours before we found the square, but everything was shut and we couldn't see any McDonalds, we sat on some stairs as we had no energy and didn't know where to go. We eventually went into a place that was open that sold burger and chips, it was quite expensive but we were really drained so needed anything, we looked around a few tour offices to see about a machu Picchu trek.
After this we went back to the hostel where we could eventually check in. We were in a four bed dorm with another couple that were really nice. We went for a nap as that's all we were capable of doing.
Later that day we headed out for something to eat and headed to a restaurant that we saw sold alpaca, the sign had been taken down so we went to one next door that did a Mexican menu.
We got the menu which included a starter of garlic bread, which we got a huge pile of, followed by home made nachos with home made guacamole, the nachos were so fresh you could barely pick them up because they were so hot. The third part was a chicken burrito, where they made the tortilla fresh right next to our table, and filled it absolutely full with chicken, onion, peppers and guacamole served with sour cream and spicy dip. This also came with a fresh lemonade, all for 10 soles each (about £2!). After this, one of the best meals we've ever had, we went to the hostel to sort out Machu Picchu and went to bed.
The next day we went into town to get our train ticket from the office on the main square. We decided to get the train because it was going to be half the price of a trek, and we wouldn't be doing the proper Inca trail anyway so we didn't think it was worth the amount of money you had to pay. While we were at the square we noticed that where we sat down the previous day when we were too hungry to go anywhere, about 10 metres away was the McDonalds and a KFC! We couldn't believe that we were looking for it but were so blind not to see it.
We collected our ticket fine, looked around town and then went for lunch at the place which sold alpaca, we ordered alpaca steak and an alpaca philly steak sandwich. The alpaca was really tasty, like really lean beef and venison mixed together, it was a little expensive but really worth it.
We then went to get our machu Picchu ticket from the tourism office which was a little bit of a walk outside of town, we knew where it was on the map so headed straight there but we couldn't see it anywhere, we knew the address and the number but the numbers on the building weren't in order so we had no clue where it was. We went back to the hostel and asked at reception where it was, he said exactly where we were but down a tiny little street, so we tried again. When we got there we walked down a tiny street to a little snappy looking shop, with no signs whatsoever outside of it indicating that this is where you buy machu Picchu tickets. We booked them, but we were also lucky that they had tickets left as they day before and the day after were fully booked up!
We spent the afternoon in the hostel sorting out our hostels for the next few days, before going back to the Mexican place with our room mates, it was good second time round as well.
The couple in our room we're doing the Inca trail and needed to be up at half 5 so we watched a DVD in the common room, it was a Xmas film set in Puerto Rico but wasn't very xmassy, it was about a family arguing and people getting divorced, we got bored and didn't see the ending.
The next morning we checked out of the hostel and went to the bus station, we got a bus to a town called Ollantaytambo, this is where you get the train from. The bus took about 3 hours and we arrived in ollantaytambo at about 12, we went to our hostel there where they said the room wasn't ready so we had to go back in an hour. We walked to a place to get dinner, we went to a burger place and got a chicken burger and a beef burger with chips, these were amazing and you could see that the burgers were homemade. We wondered around the town which was nice, it was small and everyone still wears traditional dress, they also still live in Inca built houses which were really cool. The town was tiny though so we had seen most of it within about an hour so went back to the hostel.
We were the only ones in a 12 bed dorm, so I don't know why our beds weren't ready, because there was 12 beds free?? The owner also had cats and the place stunk like cat piss, it was not nice at all. The location was good though, it was right on the square, which was good until we went to sleep. This is because the square was full of different Xmas lights, but each different Xmas light also plays its own Xmas tune, for some strange reason. This meant we had a flood of high pitched Xmas tunes in our room all night until about 6.30am.
We didn't check out of the hostel until 12 because our train was at 4 and we already felt like was had seen every inch of ollantaytambo.
We went to a market and came across a camping stall, I got some trousers for really cheap and Gráinne got some cheap llama key rings.
We sat at a bar for a while in the square while we waited for our train.
It was eventually time to get our train and when we were getting on we realised we weren't even sat together, we were sat at opposite sides on different tables. The train wasn't worth the money, it was really squished and there was no luggage area which meant we had it on our knees, it was also really hot and all we got on it was a hot drink, no food or snack or anything.
We arrived at aguas calientes and we got a 'pick-up' from our hostel there, she just showed us the way by walking. The hostel was nice and we got a dorm room to our selves. We went out to get some dinner then bought our bus ticket to machu Picchu for the next morning, then went to bed for an early start.
We were going to get up for the first bus at half 5, but the queue started at about half 4 so we thought we would get there for about 7 and just stay longer instead. We got to the bus stop and got the bus up which took about half an hour, we first got to machu Picchu but couldn't see much because it was so hazy, we were really glad we didn't get there any earlier.
We went on a walk for a bit, up to a higher point and to a point called the Inca bridge which was an Inca trail leading to the jungle but is not fully restored yet. You had to sign in and out of the walk in case you fell over the edge and someone had to come looking for you.
After this the haze had cleared and we managed to get some really good photos of us and machu Picchu.
We the went to climb Wayna Picchu, which is the tall rock in all the photos, it took us nearly three hours and it was a practically vertical climb for a few hundred metres. At the top was really scary, it was really steep with no guardrails or anything, we went to the very tip which was very high up and vertigo definitely kicked in. It was quite impressive that there was a couple of buildings and terraces at the top of this.
We were really tired after this but when we came down machu Picchu was empty, we wanted a guide but it was so empty we couldn't find one until one walked past after a little while so we paid for one. The tour was interesting, but the more we were told about it the more we were surprised it was a wonder of the world. For starters the buildings really aren't anything special, they're small and square, and all of the rocks came from right there, so they didn't even have to bring them up the mountain. It also isn't old, its less than 600 years old, which when you compare to the Egyptians or Greeks or Romans its nothing in comparison. It was also quite disappointing to learn that machu Picchu wasn't a lost city and then found by Bingham (the american who "discovered" it). The local people and farmers have always known it was there, and it was actually local children that took Bingham to it. So all in all we weren't blown away by machu Picchu, it was impressive but didn't really feel like a wonder of the world.
We left machu Picchu at about 4, so having spent about 9 hours there, we'd had enough. We had lunch in town and then got the train back to Ollantaytambo.
We arrived at about 9 and went to the hostel we had booked, we made sure it was different from the first night there. However when we got there the hostel was empty, no staff at all, we could go right in and walk around but there was no one there, we gave it half an hour of looking for people then gave up and went somewhere else. We found a place that was actually cheaper than what we had booked and a lot nicer, but we were still annoyed about not getting into our first place.
The next day we went round to the first place and argued with them until we got our deposit back that we had paid, they didn't speak much English at all so I don't know why they weren't there the main the before. We then made our way to the bus station for our bus back to Cusco.
When we got back we got a taxi to pick up our bags and then take us straight to the Irish hostel. When we got there we saw a girl we met in Arequipa so sat with her and her friends for a bit. They did nice food in the hostel, we had BBQ chicken wings as our first meal there.
The following day we went to do the walking tour, but the group was so big we could barely hear the guide and he would speak for about 5 minutes in Spanish and then 10 seconds in English so we left and went to the Inca museum. The museum was interesting, it had a lot of artwork and mummies and skulls with stretched backs. After this we had a walk around Cusco and looked in some shops.
Later that day we met the couple we met in the last hostel at a pisco bar. It was a posh bar and the cocktails were good. We then went to a pub nearby for a few beers. On the way back there was hundreds of families camped out on the streets and police officers were handing out presents to kids, it must be a tradition as so many people seemed to have come here from the country.
When we got back there was a UV party in the hostel but we went to bed so we could get up early in the morning, when we woke up people in our dorm were just getting in to bed.