Made it to Aguas Calientes!

After lunch I walked to the entrance to the ruins to meet Caitlin and looked around the tourist craft booths. I found Cailtin pretty easily and after she stopped by the bathroom we caught a motocarro down to the train station. There were less than ten minutes before the train began to board, but once on board we waited at least twenty minutes before leaving.

The Ollantaytambo ruins

The train ride was absolutely beautiful! There are amazing mountains and the terrain becomes progressively more jungle like as you go on. They had a little snack and beverage service akin to one you would find on an airplane, and I had a water and a cookie thing shaped like a pop tart. Sadly I was so tired I accidentally fell asleep for part of the journey, but I still think I saw enough. The river Rio Urubamba is crazy, with Rapids the entire length of the trip! And we were right next to the river the whole time, so I really mean the entire length! Zero calm. Looks like it would be both fun and exhausting to raft, but probably not the safest. Maybe that's where the rafting trip go, I'm not sure. Anyways, the rest of the trip was nice, but it started to rain. We also heard it rained all day at Machu Picchu, so I hope it's not completely like that tomorrow!

View from the train

On the train to Aguas Clients/Machu Picchu Pueblo

More views from the train

When we got off the train someone was there to meet us and walk us to the hotel/hostel called Hostal Viajeros. The reviews on trip advisor weren't awesome, so I was a little skeptical, but that where the tour put us and it's fine, especially since it's just one night. They had lunch ready for us when we arrived, so I had to eat another lunch. Thank goodness it had been three hours at that point! Lunch ended with a banana covered in dulce de leche, so that was superb. 

Banana with dulce de leech... yum!

After lunch we went out to explore the town. There isn't much here other than hotels/hostels, restaurants, and tourists shops. We basically walked the whole town in a very short amount of time. Caitlin decided she wanted to try out a hike, but since it was raining and I was pretty exhausted I decided to head back and rest so I'm not too beat for Machu Picchu tomorrow. So I came back and vegged on the couch a bit until she got back. 

Aguas Calientes

The main plaza in Aguas Calientes

Interesting statue in town

Aguas Calientes

We were both still zonked when she got back so we went upstairs and took a much needed nap. We also realized that this was really the first time since February 3rd that we have taken a second to rest; no wonder we're tired! I rested and slept for about an hour and then read until dinner. We met our guide downstairs at the beginning of dinner and talked about tomorrow. Since we are the only one on the tour we got to decide with him what we wanted to do. Breakfast starts at 5:30 AM so we decided to meet at 6AM to take the bus to Machu Picchu. We will have a guided tour for two hours, then has a little bit of time to rest before hiking Huaynapicchu at 10AM. After that we will have free time to explore as we please, we just have to catch our train just before 4PM. Anyways, dinner was good and was a mild mushroom soup, pasta with a cute potato rose, and finished with tea (I had cinnamon and clove). 

My potato rose

After dinner we went to meet up with Paige who did Machu Picchu today and heads back to Cusco in the morning.  We chatted for a bit and then headed back since everyone was tired. We grabbed some water for the morning on the way back and said goodbye, but she decided to stay tomorrow night in Cusco before heading to Puno, so we will see her tomorrow. Now we are back in the room and getting ready for bed! Early day tomorrow, but should be amazing. Pray for no rain!