Ruining Ollantaytambo and Descending to Aguas Calientes

The main ruins of Ollantaytambo

Most of our day was spent in Ollantaytambo. We started by taking a tour of the main ruins. The ruins aren't as big as those at Pisac, but they are still impressive. They are composed of some terracing for support and a sun temple. There is also a granary off to the side and an impressive waterworks. The construction was in progress when the Spaniards showed up, so it was never finished, but the rock was quarried from a hill across the river, about 4km away. To get the stones to the site, they even had to divert the river!

More pictures are in the Peru album.

We then had lunch at a restaurant just across the street from the ruins called Puka Rumi. They make a fantastic "burrito". Really, it's closer to a fajita because there's no rice and they provide a mis en place with all the fillings to do with as you choose. They make homemade corn and wheat tortillas that are quite delicious.

The granary at Ollantaytambo

After that, we climbed up to the ruins on the oppose side of the valley. To get there, we walked through the old part of Olly, which has been continuously lived in since Incan times. The roads are only passable by foot because they are so narrowed and cobbled. There's also fast flow canals on the side of the road. The water was actually flowing enough to flood out of the ditch in a few places. The ruins on the other side are a short, steep climb. There are two structures. The first is a little fort that looks out over the sacred valley. It was a lookout post. The second is a storage house for good. It has a sequence of ducts built into the stones that take advantage of the cold, night winds to create a natural refrigerator  They could apparently store goods for years there, although it would have been a tricky chore to get stuff up and down!

After visiting those ruins, we gathered up our stuff and headed for the train station. Aguas Calientes, at the base of Machu Picchu  can only be reached by a train that takes 2 hours. It's a little bit of a racket, costing $50 each way per person, but talk about a captive audience. If you want to see Machu Picchu, that's your only choice. Well, except for the fancy train from Cuzco that takes 4 hours, includes white table dining and costs $700 round trip.

The train to get to Aguas Calientes

The train ride had very little legroom, but it was a fascinating descent. We slowly made our way down the river as the landscape morphed from Andean high desert to dense, lush jungle clinging to near vertical cliffs. By the time we arrived in Aguas Caliente, it was dark and we made our way to the hostel. We were expecting a terrible place, since the town has a captive audience and we had heard some horror stories. Also, we knew that the luxury hotels run over $1k a night, while we only paid $55. However, it was a clean, comfortable place with a good bed and a good shower.

For dinner, we made our way down the street, almost elbowing our way past maitre d's who were trying to woo us into their restaurant. There was a little bit of happy hour inflation going on too. Near the hotel, the happy hour special was 4 for 1 pisco sours. As we got closer to the main square, this increased to 5 and eventually to 7. That should tell you how overpriced the food and drink were. Now, that being said, the restaurant we went into, based on the recommendation from the guide book and tripadvisor, was a quirky gem. It's called El Indio Feliz. When you walk in the door, you see a restaurant where every wall and ceiling surface is covered with business cards of people who have eaten there. A good portion of our waiting time was spent reading the cards near us. The rest of the decoration was vaguely pirate themed, but really, it was just random. There was even a Quebec flag!

The food itself was spectacular. I had some trout in a slightly spicy sauce, while Catherine had some beef in a pepper carob sauce. They served the dishes with these fantastic fried slices of potato tossed in a heavy dose of garlic. For dessert, Catherine had a flan, while I ordered an orange tart, which was amazing. It's a custard tart that's seasoned with a heavy dose of orange zest and then cooked to perfection. Yum!