Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu and Cusco, Peru: Day Eight (4/20)

Day Eight (4/20) in Machu Picchu, Peru

Hallelujah for an ice pack and rest. I'm now ready for Machu Picchu but have with a heavy heart decided not to do Wayna Picchu due to my ankle. I'm so bummed because they only take 400 people per day (200 for the 7 AM time slow and 200 for the 10 AM time slot). We booked our entire Peru trip around reservations to Wayna Picchu. Sigh.

We started off with a hearty breakfast at our hotel. Surprisingly the food was decent which was unexpected given our accommodations the previous evening. I ate freshly grilled flat bread, scrambled eggs, hot dogs, pancakes and sauteed plantains. Yummy.

Post breakfast, we walked down to the bus station sans day pack as the hotel was nice enough to let us leave our day packs in storage totally making it worth not staying in a hostel. A quick 30 minute bus ride later, we reached Machu Picchu.

Irving, our Lllama Path guide took us to see the Temple of Sun, Inka house, Group of Three Doorways, Main Square, Ceremonial Rock, Observatory, Temple of Three Windows, Agricultural Sector, Main Gate and Storage Units.

At 10 AM, I sent my friend off to Wayna Picchu with jealously and said goodbye to our guide, Irving. Here are some pictures my friend took on the way up to Wayna Picchu.

While I was waiting, I explored Machu Picchu armed with just my iPhone. Deciding that walking in the heat with a sprained ankle was a bad idea, I settled in to watch movies on my iPhone while waiting. With my friend safely back 2.5 hours later from Wayna Picchu which required cables like Half Dome, I'm glad that I made the decision not to go up. $66 USD versus dying seems like a no brainer. With just 1.5 hours left, we quickly took a few more pictures before heading back to Aguas Calientes for a quick lunch before our train back to Cusco.

A quick tour to see the Urubamba river near the bus station and main square, we decided to play tourist one last time and take a few pictures.

Afterwards, we settled for lunch at Indio Feliz. Prices here are high but portions are super big. We started with homemade buttery rolls which totally hit the spot since it was already 2:30 PM by the time we sat down to eat.

We order one main course, trout. One with garlic sauce and one with just lime. Each came with rice with chopped tomatoes, fresh thickly sliced potato chips and a side of local vegetables that included sweet potato, tomato and green beans. It was absolutely delicious. I would highly recommend ordering the simply grilled trout with just lime as it was so refreshing, light and most importantly, tasty. I struggled to finish my food but decided to pack up my potato chips for te 4+ hour train ride home.

At this point my camera ran out of batteries so all pictures moving forward for this entry were taken on my iPhone. Sorry folks! But post lunch we hung out in the main square just people watching until we got on the Expedition train to Cusco, a long but soothing 2 hour train ride. There is something about trains that just lull me to sleep. I haven't had such a good nice sleep as I did on the train ride even though I was sitting totally upright. After a 2 hour super nap, we arrived in Cusco and took a 2+ hour windy bus ride to downtown Cusco. I wish I was tired because with the altitude change, cooler weather and windy roads, I felt extremely car sick. I had to use all my might not to vomit and I was wide awake.  When we finally arrived at the bus stop, our Llama Path local guide picked us up in a private car to drive us to our hotel 10 minutes away. When we checked in to Tierra Viva Saphi again we could definitely feel the altitude change again. A quick freshening up, we were off to our final meal in Cusco. We tried all the places that were recommended and/or highly rated so today we play tourist and deciced to eat whatever we fanciest. We decided to go to the main square and find a restaurant that was packed and hope for the best. We ended up at Inka Grill. We started off with boiled Peruvian potatoes served with aji cream sauce. Not bad but I wish the potatoes were at least room temperature and not cold.

Next course was my avocado and tomato salad. After eating out for the past week, I was really craving something fresh and light. This was perfect with a squeeze of lime and salt. I was in heaven eating my avocados. I was doing the happy dance inside. Yippee!

Our main courses were lomo saltado and sweet potato ravioli. I tend to like vegetarian or fish options. I'm not the biggest fan of meat and I wanted to go light. Boy was this a mistake. This has to be one of the worst pasta's I have ever ate in my life. I ordered the pasta with the parmesan cheese on the side. Lucky for me as I used the cheese to eat with my avocado and tomato salad. This pasta was so sickingly sweet (think pure sugar) and heavy without any cream that is was inedible. I was hungry and managed to eat 2 pieces before calling it a day. The lomo saltado wasn't worth writing home about. The meat was tough, the sauce was extra salty and the papas frites were super soggy. It also had way too much onion and sauce and not enough rice. At the end of the day we were so beat we didn't care. After our meal we went to pack up for our early flight and final day in Peru.