After a short rest, it was time to go back into Machu Pichu and explore the amazing ruins for a few hours. Pictures and words will never do it justice. It truly is a remarkable site!!
After exploring the ruins we headed into town for lunch with our original tour group and to catch the train back to Ollantaytambo, where we would then transfer to a bus for the ride back to Cusco. I have to admit I don't remember much of the train ride as I slept almost the entire way back to Cusco. I was extremely proud of myself for completing the entire trek at a reasonable pace. Not the fastest but by far not the slowest in our group even though I was probably the oldest. While it was hard and intense I felt reasonable good throughout the entire journey, but I was now very tired.
We questioned whether we would go out for supper with the group that night in Cusco or just stay in the hotel and get some sleep. In the end we decided to go, since we were going to get the opportunity to try Guinea Pig. A Peruvian speciality. It was quite tasty, but had very little meat on the bones. You would have to work hard to be get filled up eating one of those little creatures. It looked like our group was preparing for a night out on the town, as only four of us had done the Inka Trail but I was starting to fad quickly. So Randy and I excused ourselves and head back to the hotel for a good night's sleep. Probably a very good thing as we later learned our mates had partied until 3:30 in the morning and were feeling a bit rough.
We however were feeling bright and rested the next morning and headed out to continue exploring for our last morning in Cusco. One of the services offered in Cusco is massages. Young girls on street corners approach tourist offering 1 hour massages for 30 Solez or $10. Today that sounded perfect. What better way to spend an hour before heading back to our hotel. All the stress and tension removed from our bodies we were feeling relaxed and ready for the next leg in our journey.
We were leaving Cusco at noon to fly to Arequipa. When we arrived at the airport there was a huge line-up to get into the airport never mind up to the appropriate ticket counter. We had exactly 1 hour to catch our plane and it was apparent that we would be lucky to get into the airport in an hour. We didn't panic because if we missed the plane it would be up to Neil to figure out plan B, but I have to say Neil did look a bit stressed. It turned out there was several school trips returning home and the small airport simply could not handle the volume of people. So the plane waited for all of us to get checked in before taking off. Two short hours later we were in Arequipa, the 2nd largest city in Peru.
We booked into the Hotel Solar and had 2 hours to explore until we were scheduled to meet for supper. The hotel has a great rooftop patio on the second floor but it was a little cold and windy to sit out there, so we headed to the central square for an initial look at the city. Much bigger and more metropolitan than Cusco, Arequipa has a totally different aura about it. Even though the building are similar from the outside it seems to have a stronger business, professional air about it, Back to the hotel to meet the group for dinner. Yes it does feel like our days revolve around meal times. We had a great dinner with live music provided by a mariachi band. In so many ways Peru reminds me of Mexico. Obviously the Spanish influence in both countries. Not to be wandering the streets after dark, it was back to our hotel for another early night.
No comments:
Post a Comment