Day Eight - AGUAS CALIENTES-CUSCO

Darrin and Marcel in Aguas Calientes

Marcel and Jose

Aguas Calientes from our room

We slept in until about 8 AM. I went over to Marcel’s room and woke him up and asked if he still wanted to go hiking up the railroad tracks like we had discussed the night before. He told me to give him a few minutes and he’d be ready.

We found a decent looking restaurant and stopped for breakfast. We each had the “Americano” breakfast for 10 Soles. Scrambled eggs, muffin, bread and some cocoa leaf tea (for soroche).

We hiked up the railroad tracks that continued through Aguas Calientes and wound behind Machu Picchu. There were several tunnels along the way and had to run quickly through one to avoid getting stuck with train. From the tracks you could see the winding road that lead to Machu Picchu. At one point you could see some of the ruins from the ancient city. I thought it was pretty cool that this was a view that most tourist never bothered to see. We continued on for a few miles until we reached a waterfall. We stopped there for a while and took some photos. The 3 of us had a great time talking, joking around and enjoying the new friendships. I had to stop and think how great it was that 3 guys from completely different parts of the world, speaking different languages, could come together and make a connection like we did.

Jose and I decided to head back down while Marcel continued up the tracks. I did some shopping. I bought some ear rings, alpaca blanket, a few rock carvings. I had really been looking forward to going to the hot springs. Jose agreed to go with me. But first we decided to say good bye to Yuri. We met up with Yuri and his wife and visited a while before they had to head back to the office. We hugged and said good bye.

The hot springs were more luke warm but it felt nice. Since we didn’t have shorts or towels we had to rent them from one of the little shops along the path to the springs. There were lots of tourists at the springs, many who had just finished the 4 day Inca Trail hike. It is a bit of a tradition to end the trek at the springs.

We headed back to the train station and met up with Marcel. We are all very tired and mostly slept on our way back. We met Marcel’s parents. They were waiting at the station. From there we found a taxi to take us the rest of the way to Cusco. We noticed lots of rocks on the roads, presumably from the strike. The taxi driver barely seemed to notice as he weaved through the basketball sized boulders in the road driving up to 100 mph.

Jose’s mom gave me some authentic cheese and Indian bread to take back home. I knew there was not way I could get it through customs but I took it with me. She also wrapped the spear for me. I still thought there was no way I was going to get it on the plane…as a carry on or check in.