Day Seven - AGUAS CALIENTES

Yuri and Darrin

Strike at Aguas Calientes

Machu Picchu

I awoke to the views of an incredible landscape. Mountain shot up from the village. I was in awe just laying in bed for a few minutes looking at the view. We got up and started searching the town. Everything seemed quiet. We started asking around. The strike was in full swing. Even though the strike was that of the natives protesting, most of the locals supported by closing down as well. We were told there would be no trains running all day, which means I would not be able to get out of there to get to Cusco to catch my flight back to Lima. I tried not to freak out.

I decided to visit Machu Picchu while Jose stayed back to try to get some information on return trains/planes. The bus ticket and entrance fee combined was about $100, by far the most expensive part of my trip. But I had to do it. I was at Machu Picchu after all. I took a windy, 20 minute bus ride from Aguas Calientes to the base of Machu Picchu. I spent about 3 hours wondering around this amazing ancient city. It was truly awe-inspiring. The weather was perfect. Not too hot or too cold. I took lots of photos and video. But nothing can reflect the true beauty of such a place. Words cannot do it justice either.

I arrived back at Aguas Calientes to a huge crowd of protesting natives. It was amazing to see. They didn’t seem to mind that I was taking pictures and videotaping, so I did. I watch as the crowd continued to march on through the town. Some folks seemed very angry and serious about their cause. Others just seemed caught up in the fun of it.

I found Jose back at the hotel. We called Yuri and decided to meet up with him. He works at a small government building next to the police station. The security guard called up to let Yuri know we were there. He came down to greet us and showed us back to his office on the 3rd floor. After the initial handshakes and hugs, Yuri gave me a hand made spear that some of the Natives were using in their strike. A friend of his lives in the Amazon among the Natives and had acquired it. It was cool walking around town with it. Lots of Peruvians and tourists alike smiled or gave me the thumbs up when they saw me with the spear (in apparent support of the strike).

Jose called TACA airlines for me to change my ticket. I was able to get the same flight out the next day, with a hefty fee, of course. But I was happy to get it changed.

Next we headed to the train station to get out tickets for the next morning out. There was a huge uproar at the station. Turns out folks were being told all sorts of different stories and sold different tickets. There were a lot of angry foreigners being very vocal about how they were being treated. We met one guy from Switzerland who was traveling South America for 6 months. We also met Marcel from Holland who was also traveling for 3 months. We quickly connected with Marcel and became fast friends. There was also Andreana from Lima, who Jose found very attractive and quickly started up a conversation with. We discovered that the earliest train would be 6 PM the next day. We took the tickets.

Marcel had mentioned that he had spent $60 for his small hotel the night before so we took him back to our hotel so he could get a room at our $8/night hotel. We met up with Yuri at his office and introduced Yuri to Marcel. He invited us to go to his wife’s family’s hotel/restaurant. Marcel came along. I had a Curry dish. Not as strong as I like but the taste was good.

I was feeling a little tired but the young guys, Jose and Marcel, wanted to continue with the night. I gave in. Yuri’s wife went to bed but the rest of us decided to go to a discotheque. The small club was smoky, loud and crowded. We were seated up in the loft with a view of the entire room. We had to scream at each other to communicate. But we had fun. At one point a local guy got up on the bar and started dancing. It got interesting when he started stripping. He removed his shirt and swung it around a bit. He eventually got off the bar after people lost interest.
We got to our room about 1 AM.