Ingham County

Day 6 Cusco/Aguas Calientes (Mo, May 22) Elevation: 6,693 feet
Travel back by bumpy van to Ollantaytambo to catch the scenic train to Aguas Calientes. I can’t remember who our guide was if we had one. The train was nice – assigned seats, refreshments like a plane-juice, cookie, etc. I sat with 2 people from London doing 6 month tour of S. America with their next and last stop being the Galapagos and a woman from San Francisco who had just done Galapagos. It turned out they did/were doing the same boat excursion with gourmet meals. On my own I walked around Aguas Calientes (steep inclines and declines), did some souvenir shopping, checked out massage places (it seems that my first step onto the steep decline pulled my back just a little). Later I went back for a $20 (60 soles) massage but it was very difficult to tell them what was wrong. Very little English is spoken anywhere. I did not do dinner with others I don’t think.
Pictures:
1-2 car ride to Ollanta
3-4 Train staton-Ollanta
5 cusco stay group at train station: Ben, Simon, Kaela, Sarah
6 Train ride to Agua CalienteLæs mere

Day 4 Ollantaytambo/Cusco (Sa, May 20) Ollanta: 9260 feet, Cusco 11,152 feet
The hikers left at 8 am and the Cusco stay people (5 of us) returned to the Sacred Valley with the CEO to visit the sites of the Maras Salt Mines and Moray. Simon was very sick and miserable. The bumpy car ride didn’t help. I think our guide was now Jose/Pepe (driver also named Jose).
Notes on picture 5 (blurry): these bubbles represent hostel accomodations that you have to rock climb to and then zip line back down. On a later day we saw rock climbers.
Pictures:
Ollanta - central square
Ollantaytambo ruins This is where we climbed to the previous day.
Ollantaytambo ruins view from afar of what we climbed to top left (see people up there)
Ollanta - cute kitten
Road to Cuzco - better picture later- see notes-hostel
Road to CuzcoLæs mere