Unfortunately, there are some annoying people at our hotel

Well, after quite the adventure, we finally made it to Aguas Calientes, base town for the excursion to Machu Picchu.  The trek was actually somewhat interesting.  With the traditional rail line unavailable due to the floods this past February, we had to take a bus from the city of Cusco 2/3 of the trip.  Most of it was rather pleasant, riding in the front of a minivan with seven other people through the countryside of the Andean highlands.  However things got particularly interesting when we arrived at the ¨off road¨ portion of the road trip.  Needless to say, the road was rather rough, and both Christine and I had some difficulties because the road was extremely bumpy and we both had to use the bathroom rather badly.  The combination of the two do not make for a very happy journey.

At the end of the road trip, we arrived at the makeshift train station serving as the final point of departure to Aguas Calientes.  Lots of people standing around with no idea of what to do next, but at least I had the common sense to ask (in my very poor Spanish) for what we were supposed to be waiting. Aside from some pushing, shoving, and gnashing of teeth, Chistine and I made it to the front of the line to board the train.

The train journey was relatively non-eventful, very scenic but otherwise nothing of major importance along the way.  We were seated in what I termed as the ¨sleepy car¨, because nearly everyone in the carriage was fast asleep.  Here they are on the journey of a life time, and everyone is sleeping.  Go figure.

So we finally arrived at our eco resort, the Inka Terra, located adjacent to the train tracks but an absolute world apart from the honky tonk town of Aguas Calientes.  Christine and I had a delightful, yet rather large, gourmet lunch that was included in our hotel, and then we settled for a couple of massages.  After all, what is vacation without a nice hot stone massage?

Now to reference the title of this blog, about the annoying people.  Actually there is a group of teenage girls on a high school trip who are unfortunately staying at our hotel.  Apparently they are not of the highest intellectual caliber, as they were asking each other how to spell ¨gorgeous¨ and ¨access¨.  Needless to say that Christine is not happy, and she wants to reconfirm that they are not AP level.  My guess is that they are around 6th grade reading level.  Oh well, that is awfully cruel of me to say, but heck, that is how I roll.

Christine is getting very paranoid about the various insect life near the internet terminals, so it is time for us to depart.  Tomorrow, very early in the morning, is the main event itself - Machu Picchu.  I cannot wait.  And if you want to know why I am not using contractions, I cannot find the apostrophe mark on this Spanish keyboard...l


Hasta Luego

Joe