Our Day in Aguas Calientes

We arrived in AG around noon. There was a guy at the train station to walk us to our hostel. It was a short walk (up hill!) We walked pass the famous outdoor market.

After getting checked in, we would have the rest of the day there to shop and eat and explore. It took awhile to get checked into our hostel. The language barrier was more apparent here. (Thank you, Jeannie! (our Spanish speaker of the group.) There was quite a bit of trouble computing the room cost per person because it was just a lump sum for the whole group. It took about an hour. While the clerk worked with Jeannie to check us in, our daughters went across the street to get some waters and snacks. Their first attempt was a fail. The cashier wouldn't take the $20 USD because it was torn. We scraped together 10 soles, and sent them back. Their total was 12 soles, but I think the guy at the counter was tired of interacting with the English speaking girls at this point, and allowed them to leave with their goods.

The four of us shared one room with two bunk beds. It was a big, fun sleepover! At $13 per person, it was a great value. The walls were thin though, and I did wake in the middle of the night to a loud group of young people stumbling to their room. Another "collegesque" experience, I suppose. We had wifi and Mackenzie got to call home to chat with some friends for the first time in a week. I'm still not sure if Abbi has forgiven me for not letting her bring her phone.

There was a free breakfast similar to the hostel in Cusco, which made the value even better!

One amenity that may have been missing-towels! The hostel sometimes offered towels for rent, but one of our group had asked for one and they were all out. This is where my shamwow came in handy! A friend of mine had it on her recommended travel items list, and since I thought we might have showers in the mud hut bathroom, I brought two. It made sense to me. Packs light, life saver if there are showers, and dries quick. Abbi will tell you that the shamwow was the most unnecessary item that we packed. I beg to differ!

We decided to head out to explore and eat. We ate in the second story of a charming pizza restaurant. It had a view of the square and all the busy happenings below. After lunch, we walked around the shopping district. We found our ornaments and Mackenzie's painting. We walked around the majority of the small village. It's in a little valley, and  the mountain walls go straight up. The mountains are covered in beautiful evergreen tones and the weather was perfect.

I was in such awe over the beautiful steep mountains.

The Tiny Town

The population of Aguas Calientes is 1600 people. Most of the buildings are 2-3 stories. They have shopping and dining below and in some of the buildings it is apartments above. I didn't see much for houses, and it doesn't seem like there were many roads out of the square. I think the 1600 people must live all very near. The tourism industry keeps the town alive.  

There is a hot springs, which we considered experiencing. The Hritscos and the Fraziers decided to split up for a bit. Rhonda and Mackenzie went for massages, and Abbi and I walked and explored some more. Abbi and I ran into Tisha and Michelle and they said the hot springs looked really dirty. Abbi was very glad we did not decide to do it. 

We looked up from our Mother Dauther dinner and saw these two dining across the street and up one level. We joined them because our food was bad.

 From the street below, Rhonda summoned some musicians up to serenade us.  They didn't speak any English, but did know, "Tips? Tips?"

I dropped my camera.  I temporarily experienced a lens error where my camera wouldn't take pictures. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love my pictures. Breaking my camera the night before a bucket list moment broke my heart a little. I was determined not to cry, because it was just a "thing." But then Rhonda put my feelings into words for me. She was trying to explain to Mackenzie why I was upset. Hearing it out loud made me cry. With the exhaustion and the sadness over my camera, I had a little breakdown. Not the teenaged girls, me... I'm the one with the breakdown.

I've had this kind of camera before (Sony) and it has a spring in the lens that gets jammed if you drop it.  The same lens error has happened before with an older camera when I was in Hawaii. My cousin accidentally fixed it by knocking it on the table. So, I spent some time knocking the lens on this camera, and it worked! The lens error was corrected and my camera starting working again. We put the camera out of reach until the morning and crossed our fingers that it would stay working.

We went to sleep, alarms set for 6. Our group was to meet at 6:30 for the bus ride up to Machu Picchu.