Aguas Calientes

Well, up bright and early this morning and boarded the train for the 4 hour journey to Aguas Calientes, where I am now. It isn´t actually far from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, but the train only goes about 25-30 km per hour due to the terrain it has to negotiate, so it takes a while. I bought myself a ´backpacker´ticket, the cheapest you could get, and it was still $100 US round trip.

The trains are fairly comfortable, but packed full, and I wasn´t happy to see that they have the seats facing eachother in groups of four. You cant put your legs out, as the person opposite you has their legs there, so it is cramped and uncomfortable. At least when seats are in normal rows you can stick your legs under the seat.

I spent the journey in and out of something similar to sleep, with my face mashed up against the glass of the window, and created a nice red dent in my forehead from occasionally tring to rest my face against the window frame. Either that or I was slumped forward in a crumpled mess. I dont think I actually slept at all the night previous, as insomnia is another side effect of altitude sickness. That and people rolling into the dorm at 3 am and making a bunch of noise. Ahh, traveling.

The town itself is a giant tourist town, I´m not entirely sure it would exist if it wasn´t for people coming here to either hike the Inca trail or go up to Macchu Picchu. All that seems to exist is markets, hostel and hotels, restaurants, and lots of dogs and cats everywhere.

My altitude sickness has calmed down somewhat, I managed to get rid of the three day headache for a few hours, but it is back with a reinforcements. The nausea is gone, and my balance has leveled out for the most part. I have overheard others talking about it, and I am not the worst off by far. Some American kid had to be hospitalized for a while he had it so bad. Aguas Calientes is about 3000 feet lower than Cusco, so that is a bonus, and thankfully I only have about 12 hours in Cusco after I return, and then fly back to Lima, which mostly is at sea level or close to it.

Tomorrow is another early morning, about 4:30 am to get up and catch the first bus up to Macchu Picchu, trying to avoid the masses. Then it´s a lovely train ride back to Cusco at 5 p.m., and another early flight back to Lima the day after.