...To Aguas Calientes...

On Tuesday, we took a train from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes. Unfortunately, this meant getting up at 5:15, since the train left at 6:15. Ick.

The train was pretty cool. We definitely got to see more of the country from train-level than from airplane-level. We were both surprised by how big Cuzco is - we were on the train for almost 45 minutes before we finally got out of the city. Almost all of the houses we saw were made out of mud-bricks. I learned that they were sun-dried bricks (as opposed to oven-dried) as we passed several small fields covered in a grid of drying bricks. I attempted to get a picture, but I'm not sure how successful I was...

We also passed several Incan ruins on this trip. The Incan empire was linked by a series of trails that ran through their extensive territory. The train track paralleled this trail for much of our trip, so we got to see many of the remains of old settlements or towns that existed along this trail. It was kind of a preview for what I knew we'd be seeing at Machu Pichu. It was amazing to see how far their empire stretched and to know that I was only seeing a small part of it.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes around 10 in the morning. Probably 80% of the people on the train immediately boarded a bus up to Machu Pichu. Working off the suggestion of osme of the SALI interns, we avoided the bulk of the crowds and waited until Wednesday morning to head up to MP. This gave us all of Tuesday afternoon to rest and hang out in Aguas Calientes. There wasn't much to do, but we ate at a really great restaurant and climbed out onto the rocks in the river. Our room overlooked the river, and we were treated to the sound of the water crashing over the rocks all night. Quite a nice change from our sanctification bird!