"I'd rather have you mad than dead!"

This morning we caught a taxi to Poroy, where we would catch our train to Machu Picchu.  We took a Vistadome train, which has nice, large windows plus extra windows in the ceiling.

Riding the Vistadome.

The Vistadome crept along at about jogging pace for around three and a half hours, but what a BEAUTIFUL ride!  The train tracks meander along a river at the bottom of the snow-capped, clound ringed Andes mountains.  Despite the snow on the top, down in the valley it seems to be pretty warm.

Vistadome runs through the snow-capped Andes Mountains.

Following the river.

Another beautiful view from the Vistadome.

Suddenly, during the trip, the train stopped and then started to move backwards.  One cheeky member of the crew told us all that because of the rain, the train track was closed and we all have to go back to Poroy.  He fooled several of us gullible tourists.  :)  Here's what was really happening:

The train had a really interesting method of getting down several meters in the space of very few meters across: the "zig zag" method.  The train went forward on the tracks until it passed a "Y" in the tracks, then went backwards down the Y to another Y, then went forward again and continued on the track that was much deeper in the valley.  The zig zag method was first used by the Incas to get up and down the mountains, though obviously not for trains.  :)

When we arrived in Aguas Calientes, the first thing one has to walk through is a huge souvenir market; they make you walk through it as soon as you get off the train, just like Disney World... :)  We wound our way through the maze of shops selling more of the same goods we have seen everywhere in Peru, walked through the tiny town to the main plaza and arrived at Gringo Bills, our hotel for our one night in Aguas Calientes.  It is a cute little maze of a place, rooms seem stacked haphazardly all over the place around the central area with a tiny pool (now empty, evidently not heated) and lots of lovely plants.  We dropped our stuff off in our room, the headed out to the main plaza to grab some lunch.

Awww, cute little towel swans awaited us at Gringo Bill's.

There are a bazillion bars and restaurants in Aguas Calientes, and every one has someone standing outside trying to drive tourists into their restaurant; it gets a little exhausting.  And all of them have menus catering to tourists - lots of pizza, Mexican food, Italian, etc.  To get a more interesting menu, we tried to go to the Lonely Planet recommended "Tree House," but they were closed for construction until evening.  We went back to the main plaza and picked a place on the 2nd floor above the plaza to have pizza.  The pizza was unimpressive, but the fresh pineapple/apple juice was delicious.

After lunch we ran a few errands; we bought bus tickets for the bus to Machu Picchu tomorrow and I also bought a pair of what I dubbed Peruvian Hammer Pants; they are REALLY baggy colorful cotton pants that tie at the ankles.  I bought them specifically for climbing around in Machu Picchu, since all I had in my suitcase were tight jeans.  J  Then we decided, on Gavin's suggestion, to do the Putucusi hike mentioned in Lonely Planet for a preview of Machu Picchu.  The hike starts only about 200 meters out of town and is said to take about three hours total.  Lonely Planet mentioned it is a bunch of stairs and a few ladders.  I changed into my Peruvian Hammer Pants and we headed out.

Putucusi - yeah, we decided to climb that.

We started climbing the stairs, and seemed to ascend pretty quickly.  We got to the first "ladder;" and it appeared to be in a bit of disrepair; a couple rungs were missing, a small tree had fallen across it, and the handrail hung uselessly.

One of the many busted ladders we had to climb on Putucusi.

That ladder was the BEST of the things we had to climb.

After ascending that particular ladder and climbing a few more stairs, we saw our next obstacle: an almost straight up rock face with ski lift-like cable to drag yourself up by.  The ladder at the bottom was completely thrown to the side and useless, and there was no ladder until almost all the way up!  It was about 80 feet we had to climb using only the cable and the rock face!  We got up with surprisingly little difficulty, though I was quite nervous about how I would get DOWN later...

Looks fun, doesn't it?  :)

 

I realize this looks like a video of my behind, but that's because Gavin was filming... :)  This was the "most fun" part of Putucusi.

We continued the hike, having to climb even more ladders, some with multiple rungs missing (yoga flexibility came in handy here!), some with so much mud caked around them you couldn't hold on with your hands, some with bare nails sticking out, some where you had to use those bare nails for HAND HOLDS since there was nothing else to grab!

Putucusi is not for the faint of heart.  :)

After 5 or 6 ladders, it was back to ascending stairs again.  It was getting to be a little past 3:00pm, and Gavin got nervous that we would have to climb down all those crazy ladders in the dark if we continued.  He started suggesting that we go back down, but we agreed to keep going until 3:30.  About that time we ran into somebody that told us it was another half hour climb to the top, but then Gavin insisted that we go back down.  ("I'd rather have you mad at me than dead!"  :)  )  So dejectedly, I agreed to go back down.

Getting down those ladders is quite a bit trickier than getting up them; we had to test EVERY rung with our feet before putting weight on it, had to keep an eye on when there was one or some rungs missing, etc.  The rock face definitely wasn't fun on the way down.  I made sure to look only where I put my feet, not ANY farther down than that...  :)

We made it back to town in one piece, and Gavin was jealous of the freedom of movement I had in my Peruvian Hammer Pants, so he bought some for himself, and I bought another pair since mine were completely soiled from Putucusi.  (not soiled meaning I wet my pants due to fear, soiled meaning I got them dirty crawling around on all the rocks and muddy ladders!  :)  )  After that, we decided to go to the aguas calientes (hot springs) for which the town Aguas Calientes is named.  Since I had stupidly left my swimsuit in the left luggage in Lima, I had to buy a cheap one in a shop outside the hot springs.  (Gavin suggested I RENT one for 3 soles - GROSS!!!)  Then we walked up to the springs.

The aguas calientes of Aguas Calientes.

When I saw the hot springs, I vowed not to get in the water.  The  springs were five or six pools, only a couple of which were full of water, and one was full of people...  and BROWN water!  Gavin tried to convince me it was the minerals in the spring water, but to me it looked like the very definition of "stewing in your own filth..."

The hot springs at night: People-Scum Soup.

I did finally get in, I just tried really hard not to look at the water...  It was really nice and warm, the perfect temperature.  And you could order drinks poolside; we waved to a guy two stories up and he came to take our order, then brought our drinks to the pool.  I had a surprisingly delicious mojito.  We ended up talking to a girl who was in the Peace Corps in Peru, originally from Chicago, currently using her built up Peace Corps vacation days to see Machu Picchu with her parents.

After a bit, we noticed the pool was getting even MORE crowded and the water even MORE brown, so we decided it was time to go.  We went back through town, where I bought a cheap woven backpack - I had climbed Putucusi with a PURSE, of all things, and that definitely got in the way while trying to find hand and foot holds.  I thought we would also be doing some climbing at Machu Picchu and I would want my stuff out of my way.

Aguas Calientes at night.

For dinner we went back to the Tree House; its all wood interior really does make it feel like a tree house.  Gavin had a really good steak, and I had passable tabouli salad made with quinoa instead of bulgar wheat.  I also tried a pisco sour again - another nasty one.  In my meager experience, it seems that Peru's national drink is either really good or really bad.  :)

After dinner, we headed back to Gringo Bills for an early night; we decided to get up to catch a 5:30am bus to Machu Picchu tomorrow...