Our last excursion in Peru began Easter Monday, when we'd arranged for a private guide and driver to take us back up the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo, where we were to catch the train the next day to Machu Picchu Pueblo. There was a delay as Roberto, Maria's partner, sent the driver to get us at our old hotel, and Jim had to remind him to give us our train tickets...we only got the "go" portion; had to wait until the day of our return to get the other half! We'd given them the money the week before but they seemed to have trouble coming up with the tickets and our M P entrance passes. Our names on the tickets were Harold (Lynne) and Jason (Jim) Howdeen. Whatever, they had our correct passport numbers. Orientours may look after you like a baby, but efficiency was not their strong suit. They write out your "itinerary" by hand and make arrangements by phone. You have to have faith that everything will work out or get high blood pressure worrying about it.
A couple of stops en route were at Moray, an agricultural experimentation lab started by the Incas and continuing today, and Maras, salt evaporation ponds, both quite interesting visually. The ruins at Ollantaytambo, where the Incas defeated the Spaniards in 1537, part of an unsuccessful rebellion, are the best-preserved in Peru and we spent several hours wandering through them and up the mountain across the way.
Perurail's Vistadome to Machu Picchu Pueblo (Aguas Calientes) traversed a deep, narrow gorge affording very spectacular scenery and offered excellent service including a boxed lunch. The Pueblo is like a bad border town, just there to service M P tourists. We caught an early bus up to M P, arriving at 7:30 a.m., before the masses of tourists. It was like walking onto the set of a movie...just like you see it in postcards, ads, etc. I don't know why I expected it to look different! It did not disappoint. Okay, the sky could have been bluer for photos. There is something calming and other-worldly that comes over you when you first see it and the feeling lingers with you until you leave. Our return train tickets did materialize at the 11th hour, carried by a tourist from another agency who joined our guide later in the day. We knew there were no tickets available that day. Since the tickets only took us as far as Ollantaytambo, Maria (bless her heart) sent a driver for the two-hour ride back to Cusco, saving us at least an hour over the bus ride. She came through once again! We were back in time to catch our 5 flights, 28 hours of travel, home on Thursday/Friday.
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