Doing the funky chicken (bus)
Liz here. Chris signed us in on his account, and the internet tubes are waaay too slow here to bother re-signing in.
After we successfully made it back from war-torn Aguas Calientes (everything looked pretty peaceful when we left, but you never know when the mayor´s appearance may have incited major violence), we spent the next day in Cusco where we took in a few more of the sights and finally had our dinner of cuy, which is roasted guinea pig. It was fantabulous. Cuy meat is tender, juicy, and buttery. Mmmm... cuy.
Today, we decided to go a couple towns over to the city of Ollantaytambo, which was originally planned and built by the Incas and has been continuously inhabited since the 13th century. The foundations are all Incan stonework, and drainage canals and waterworks still keep the river at bay. There is also a pretty cool Incan fortress ruin above the city.
Getting here was the real adventure, though. We tried for a while to get a big, air conditioned tour bus here, but found that it´s just not possible. Plenty of tour companies were willing to sell us big involved tours of the whole Sacred Valley, but not just a bus to Ollantaytambo. Everyone told us the same thing. "Go to Puente Grau, get a local bus." Fine. We humped it to this bridge in Cusco where all the local buses are and paid 7 soles (US $2) for both of us to take a 2 hour ride to Urubamba, where we´d have to change buses. We felt pretty smug at our local acumen, as we were the only gringos on the bus. When the bus left, there were a couple people standing in the aisles. Here's a picture of the type of bus we were on...
We figured that they´d be getting off a few stops down the line. Wrong. Not only did they stay on, our little bus kept taking on more and more passengers. When we got to the next big town, the most amazing thing happened. Without any warning or conversation, everyone standing in the aisles crouched down below window level. There must be some sort of safety checkpoint in the area. The beauty is, whoever works the security checkpoint must take these buses from time to time, so they know what´s going on. The situation was a beautiful example of how South America works. People crouch down to avoid being seen, the security guy can honestly tell his supervisor that he didn´t see any extra people on the bus, and life goes on.
When we finally reached Urubamba, we were quickly ushered towards a vehicle no larger than a VW microbus to continue our journey to Ollantaytambo. Finally, we were to ride on what is affectionately known throughout the Americas as "the chicken bus." Today, there were no chickens, but there were 21 souls onboard. Twenty-one. In a microbus. Fortunately, it was only a 20 minute ride.
Ollantaytambo is a lovely little village, and we are lucky enough to have arrived during the Fiesta del Niño de Something or Other. We will try to catch some of the festivities and document them for your pleasure.
Tomorrow we´ve got some shopping to do, then it´s back to Cusco for our last night in country. It´s been a great trip, but I´m hankering for some proper nachos.
After we successfully made it back from war-torn Aguas Calientes (everything looked pretty peaceful when we left, but you never know when the mayor´s appearance may have incited major violence), we spent the next day in Cusco where we took in a few more of the sights and finally had our dinner of cuy, which is roasted guinea pig. It was fantabulous. Cuy meat is tender, juicy, and buttery. Mmmm... cuy.
Today, we decided to go a couple towns over to the city of Ollantaytambo, which was originally planned and built by the Incas and has been continuously inhabited since the 13th century. The foundations are all Incan stonework, and drainage canals and waterworks still keep the river at bay. There is also a pretty cool Incan fortress ruin above the city.
Getting here was the real adventure, though. We tried for a while to get a big, air conditioned tour bus here, but found that it´s just not possible. Plenty of tour companies were willing to sell us big involved tours of the whole Sacred Valley, but not just a bus to Ollantaytambo. Everyone told us the same thing. "Go to Puente Grau, get a local bus." Fine. We humped it to this bridge in Cusco where all the local buses are and paid 7 soles (US $2) for both of us to take a 2 hour ride to Urubamba, where we´d have to change buses. We felt pretty smug at our local acumen, as we were the only gringos on the bus. When the bus left, there were a couple people standing in the aisles. Here's a picture of the type of bus we were on...
We figured that they´d be getting off a few stops down the line. Wrong. Not only did they stay on, our little bus kept taking on more and more passengers. When we got to the next big town, the most amazing thing happened. Without any warning or conversation, everyone standing in the aisles crouched down below window level. There must be some sort of safety checkpoint in the area. The beauty is, whoever works the security checkpoint must take these buses from time to time, so they know what´s going on. The situation was a beautiful example of how South America works. People crouch down to avoid being seen, the security guy can honestly tell his supervisor that he didn´t see any extra people on the bus, and life goes on.
When we finally reached Urubamba, we were quickly ushered towards a vehicle no larger than a VW microbus to continue our journey to Ollantaytambo. Finally, we were to ride on what is affectionately known throughout the Americas as "the chicken bus." Today, there were no chickens, but there were 21 souls onboard. Twenty-one. In a microbus. Fortunately, it was only a 20 minute ride.
Ollantaytambo is a lovely little village, and we are lucky enough to have arrived during the Fiesta del Niño de Something or Other. We will try to catch some of the festivities and document them for your pleasure.
Tomorrow we´ve got some shopping to do, then it´s back to Cusco for our last night in country. It´s been a great trip, but I´m hankering for some proper nachos.
posted by arehart at 1:48 PM
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