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November 8, 2005
Where there’s a Market… There’s a Way
The bus was supposed to get into Cuzco at 5:00am, which we hopped would give us enough time to possibly get tickets for one of the trains to Aguascalients, the nearest town to Machu Picchu. It turns out we were an hour late. When we were getting off the bus we could hear the first train leaving so I knew it was going to be hopeless to catch the last train at 6:30am. Our book made clear that tickets were not sold at the station, but on the other side of town, so it just didn’t leave us enough time. It also said to get the tickets as far in advance as possible as the train normally sold out.
I’d lost hope until I started talking with a taxi driver outside the station. We could be in Aguascalientes before 11:00am if we trusted him, he said. According to him we could take a collective to a town about 1.5 hours away and then jump on the train there. He was sure there would be seats. He said he could take us for 40 soles but it would be a better deal to take a collectivo which would cost 10. When we arrived at the location the collectivos were departing he even helped us negotiate the price.
Soon we were making our way through the Andes with 6 other Peruvians packed into a small car. I talked about Fujimori’s (a former president of Peru with a questionable legacy) recent arrest with the other passengers. I wanted to know why the guy just didn’t stay in Japan where he was in exile. I mean, didn’t he know he would be arrested? He knew, they assured me, and they said there was no doubt that Fujimori was the person who made sure all the media was there when he got off the plane in Chile. It was simply a publicity stunt as rumor has it he plans to run again in the upcoming presidential election.
One of the passengers was on his way to be a porter for tourists walking the 4-day Inca Trail. I asked him the weight limit for the tourist bags he had to carry. It was 20 kilos. That is the same weight as my backpack which is pretty damn heavy. We talked more about Peru and his job until we dropped him off a plaza where a group of other porters were waiting. He also worked in the main office and had to talk with them first about a new insurance policy the company had purchased before they all were off to meet the hikers.
We arrived at the train station right before a huge group got there. Everyone was cutting in line but the woman yelling at people in front of us and Em’s evil glares made sure we stayed up near the front. Before long we had tickets to Aguascalientes and a return trip tomorrow. We jumped on the train at 9:05am and were in Aguascalientes before 11:00am, just like the original taxi driver had assured us.
We checked into the another nice hostel that was right by the town’s river. We are splurging a bit on accommodations of late, but after all this traveling I feel we need it. Once we got settled we headed to the hot springs in the town. They were located right up the river from our hotel and were similar to the ones in Baños, but less crowded.
Next we grabbed some food in town, changed some travelers checks (there are no ATMs in town), and caught up on some email.
Tonight we took it easy and got to bed somewhat early as tomorrow we have to catch the 5:30am bus to Machu Picchu.
Posted by Peter Mork at November 8, 2005 1:36 PM
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