Aguas Calientes
While Cusco is the closest major city to Machu Picchu, it's still too far to make a day trip there; for that we had to take a train to a little tourist-trap of a town called Aguas Calientes, whose sole purpose is providing tourists with a base from which to explore the ruins.
In the morning we rose bright an early to catch a 7:42 train to Aguas Calientes. During the trip our train actually went down the wrong track at one point and had to back up to switch tracks, which I'd never before experienced. Three hours later we arrived in Aguas Calientes and eventually found our hostel. Unlike the other hostel rooms we're shared so far, this one had neither Internet access nor a TV. I was glad to not have the TV but I did miss having Internet access.
After getting settled in, we went out for lunch. I finally managed to eat alpaca, which I'm pleased to report does not taste just like beef or any other meat I've had before. The flesh was very tender and I enjoyed it tremendously. It began raining while we were at the restaurant so we busted out some rain gear and set off to purchase tickets for Machu Picchu at 2pm, which is when they go on sale. Incredibly, it took over 20 minutes for the 2 guys at the ticket sales booth to get around to selling us our tickets, despite there being nobody else around and this being their primary responsibility! They also claimed not to have any change, just like nearly every other sales staff we've encountered in Peru. You'd think that any place accepting only cash would make a point of having plenty of change on hand...
Following a brief pit stop at our hostel, JM and I went to the hot springs. Although these ones were a lot smaller than those in Budapest, they did have one neat feature: a gravel-covered floor that felt pleasant to walk on. Once we were done with the hot springs, it was time for dinner, for which we patronized a French Peruvian restaurant that wowed us with its menu and presentation. We didn't do much else after dinner because we needed to catch a bus to Machu Picchu at 5:30 in the morning.
