We're in some Hot Water- Peru Day 5

After we had our fill of Machu Picchu we hopped on the bus with our entire group and headed down a series of steep switchbacks on our way to the town at the bottom of the mountain, Aguas Calientes. 

Alex and Eddie had left a few hours before the group and Alex gave us directions to the restaurant where we would all be eating our final group meal.  As we arrived in Aguas Calientes we realized it was a one street town.

 Alex, showing exactly how clairvoyant he is, was waiting for us when our bus arrived in town. We all headed off to the restaurant and ordered burgers and pizza.  Jo and I thought it was a luxury to have burgers, we would find out later that Augas Calientes was full of burgers and pizza.   After lunch Alex, Eddie and Matias hopped on the train and headed back to Cuzco.  Bethany, Matt and Klaus were scheduled for a later train and headed off to find an internet café.  Jo and I had decided to stay in Aguas Calientes that night so we headed to our hostel (which Alex had already found for us and drawn us a map).   We originally reserved a four person room, but the hostel was light on customers so we received a two person room!  It was freaking sweet!  We took some time to hang all of our wet clothes aroun

d the room.  It was only 3 in the afternoon so we decided to head up to the city’s namesake, the local hot springs (Aguas Calientes = Hot Waters). 

The hot springs were great.  We had a wonderful time just soaking in the natural springs.  There were a lot of familiar faces from the trail hanging out in the springs.  It was extremely relaxing and we could feel our muscles relaxing as we sat in the warm water.  After the springs we went back to the hostel and had a nice hot shower.  We decided to head out and find some dinner after our shower and came across another pizza joint just down from the hostel.  It was actually really good pizza, wood fired and very fresh ingredients.   We retired early that night, I read a bit on my iPod touch (hooray for Kindle apps!) and Jo wrote in her journal.  We slept the sleep of the dead that night.  It was really nice to sleep in a soft, comfy bed after four nights of tent floor. 

When we got up the next day we had about 5 hours to kill before we caught the train back to Ollyantatambo.  We left our stuff at the hostel and went walking around the town.  There are really only two streets in Aguas Calientes and we took the back street down from the Hostel to the train tracks.  There was a very pretty fountain in the center of the plaza.

  We then trundled on through the huge market  (which was well situated for the locals…you had to walk through it to get to the train station).  Jo bought herself a necklace and I bought a head band to keep my hair out of my face.  We then sat at a coffee shop for about an hour or so, watching tourists walk up and down the road in their khaki safari pants, linen shirts and multi-pocketed vests.  One group seemed to get a cell phone as part of their trip. 

The train ride back to Ollyantatambo was fairly uneventful.  We were in the “backpacker coach” which is the nice way to say “the cheap seats.”  We slept a lot of the trip and pretty much stared out the windows.  When we got to Ollyantatambo we still had a 2 hour ride back to Cuzco.  We were expecting to take a Llama Path bus, but what we got was a small car that we shared with another couple from Montreal.  One of the best moments of the whole trip happened about 20 minutes outside of Cuzco.  We were driving through a hail storm and our driver could not get his window rolled up…it was freaking hilarious, there I am, right behind the driver, getting pelted with hail the size of quarters. 

Overall, Aguas Calientes was touristy and boring but exactly what we needed to unwind from Machu Picchu.