Hey there world travelers. Hey there. For those of you that are new here, I'm Tanya
and I'm Dave, and we're Turn It Up World. And, if you haven't already, please be
sure to hit that subscribe button, and notification bell, and make sure it's
highlighted to keep up with all of our travels. So, it's been an incredible few
days for Dave and I being able to trek through the mountains of Patabamba and
Huchuy Qosqo above the Sacred Valley on one of the less touristy Inca
trails, yet extremely beautiful, to being able to stay in the mountains above the
clouds with the most incredible indigenous Peruvian couple you'd ever
want to meet, Wilmacarne and Nameshioqispe
who invited us into their home. They cooked for us. They basically showed us
their ways and we are eternally grateful and, let me say this, they had some of the
most incredible views and sunrises you'd ever want to see. If you haven't seen
that video, you should definitely go check out that video. So now we're gonna
quickly explore some of the ancient ruins on our way back down this
mountain, because we have to catch a train. We have to catch the PeruRail in
Ollantaytambo to get to Aguas Calientes. Inside of one of the Inca
palaces where they traditionally had I guess rituals you would call them, each window that
you see throughout this palace had a different offering, a different offering to mother earth and the spirits, things
of that nature, and just it's incredible how you can see some of the
architectural detail of the Incas still exists and some of the mud and how they built
it back in those traditional times. What we have here is a large reservoir that
would hold water for the farms below. If you look below, there's all kinds of
terraces, terrace levels that are going down. It's hard to see actually from this
angle, but you can see it from from below. But this was just some incredible work
where they would just you know colect the water and then you'd see it would flow
out through these basically type aqueducts down to the terraces below,
just pretty incredible work.
So here we have this the bedroom of the Inca King and if you look at the
stonework it's just absolutely incredible how
there's no grooves in between, perfectly fit together, just like mastermind architect,
And it's incredible.
And, this in here was the grand room of the Inca king, absolutely stunning.
Nice bedroom.
Two floors. Yes, two
floors. To hold his many wives. Yes. It's good to be the king.
Alright, so we're now at Tunupa Restaurant here in Urubamba, Peru. We just
came back from our homestay, so this is like quite a contrast to that, I got to
say, we kind of came from a totally authentic kind of Inca homestay
to just a mass tourist place with all kinds of buses, and tour buses in the parking lot, but the food
is really good. It is all buffet style. I'm definitely going to try some of those desserts
before we head off to our train, which is going to take us to Aguas Calientes to rest up,
relax, for our next adventure. Ok, so right now we are at a cliff side hotel here in Peru. So, right up there, way up
there are the cliff side hotels that are so booked up that not everyone, it takes a
long time before you can actually stay at one of those guys. Dave and I were
supposed to do this adventure trek up top to those and then zip line down, but
we chickened out so we weren't going to do that, but this is where they are here in Peru, way
up there. Yeah, tell me you would do that. You, would you do that? Would you climb all the way up
there to do that? Yeah, leave it in the comments below if that's something you
would definitely do or maybe not.
We are now at the PeruRail, getting ready to head to . . . Machu Picchu
Yes. Actually, Aguas Calientes. Aguas Calientes.
We're leaving from the station called Ollantaytambo, and it is a really busy station. Oh, it's crazy.
So many people, every which direction. It's like this is like the train that folks take to Machu Picchu.
The height of tourism here in Peru. Yeah. Next round of adventures here we come.
Okay. Here we are. All right. We're on PeruRail heading to Aguas Calientes.
Now we have to say taking the PeruRail
Vistadome train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes was definitely worth
it. What was nice about this train is that each cart had these really large
windows on both sides but they also had glass on the roof which allowed you to
almost experience a panoramic view of all the incredible sights you were about
to see along the train line.
Now the tickets are a bit pricey per person. They roughly range 280 soles,
which is about $85, but depending on your schedule they do offer promotions on
certain times and trains and we've seen anywhere from 20 percent to 49 percent
off the tickets. What was nice about the tickets that we had is they offered
snacks and beverage service, which was included in that price. Now I'm not sure
if that applies to the discount tickets. You'll have to do some research online
to make sure that's the case or not the case. Now, let me tell you guys, we
definitely took advantage of the snacks and beverage service. Now, there was one
other thing missing from this beautiful panoramic view train ride which was the
cocktails, so we definitely ordered a couple cocktails to go along with
those amazing views. I had a delicious pisco sour and Dave enjoyed an ice-cold
Peruvian beer. Now, that's our jam. Another thing is the train ride is about an hour
and a half long and it can be a bit noisy and making it tougher conversation
but having those cocktails in hand and those amazing views definitely made up
for it. Oh, and we met a really nice French couple who invited us to visit
them in Casablanca, so say hi. We just might take them up on that.
Hey, so we are finally checked into our hotel, Sierra Andina, and will you take a
look at this view here in Aguas Calientes. It is really loud out here if
you walk out to our own little private balcony, but come on it doesn't get any
better than this here. You have the running rivers flowing, the beautiful
mountains, man it's just incredible here. So, we're gonna go freshen up a bit, check
out something to eat. We've got a couple recommendations so
we're gonna see what those are about, but right now I need to freshen up. Dave
needs to freshen up, before we get ready to hit this town.
Aguas Calientes
is basically the stopping ground for tourists before heading to Machu Picchu
and many Machu Picchu tour guides will recommend staying in Aguas Calientes
for at least one night. Nestled inside an enclave of mountains there's an
abundance of shops and hotels and let me just say the hotels there are not cheap.
Example, the hotel that we stayed in the Sierra Andena Principal
roughly ranged about $200 a night and you would think with that kind of price
tag you would have some decent internet in your room, nope
there was no internet in the room. You have to use it in a common area and it
was awful. So, if you have to get some work done using the internet I would
suggest you book a different hotel. So for dinner Dave and I chose to eat at a
highly rated restaurant called Mapacho and Mapacho is supposed to have pretty
decent food along with pretty decent prices. I think you pay for a full meal
between eight and fifteen dollars, so not bad.
Unfortunately, it's pretty loud in there between the people and the running water
of the river outside not only can you not get conversation in unless you're
screaming at the top of your lungs, but we couldn't actually give you or share
with you guys our opinion of the food items we ordered on the spot. So, I'm just
going to tell you a little bit about them right now.
So the first item we ordered was an appetizer, which was really good, now that
was a great start. It was a wonton roll with cheese inside
and it was on top of like an avocado or guacamole dipping spread, which was really
tasty. Dave got a beef dish with like a chile risotto and unfortunately it
looked really good, but it wasn't good at all. I mean it was just no flavor
and no taste really to the meat or the risotto, and I on the other hand got this
kind of battered pork dish, which looks super good and tasty with the corn and
the potato, but it also didn't really have much flavor with the exception that
the pork was super salty so hard to enjoy overall. So our opinion overall of the
restaurant was just okay, but hey it did what it was supposed to do. It took care
of our hunger for the night, so now we can go back to our room chill out and
unwind and get ready for Machu Picchu. Oh, and the Temple of the Sun now that
should be fun. Alright, we'll see you on the road
world travelers.
I guess we need the key to open it.