ELisa, Lisa (a nice Aussie girl we met who’s boyfriend was on a trek to Machu Picchu) and I decided to walk around and find the best deal to get to Machu Picchu by train and bus. We had been told it was possible to camp in the park if you snuck your stuff in. So we wanted the best deal to get there for one night and camp…not telling the tour operator of our sneaky little plan. Well, we met Dora. She seened nice. She spoke English very well and was working with us on price. We bought her package and were to to picked up at the hostel the next day at 6 am. That was fine but when we got to the train station and boarded the train we realized she had not give us our return tickets. Too late now. When we got to Aguas Calientes, the city at the base of machu picchu and huanapicchu we were looking for our english speaking tour guide. WEll what do you know… no guide waiting for us with a sign like all the other tour groups! We found someone to help us and they lead us to restaurant to call the travel agent. She kept telling him things like we need to have a hostel so they can deliver the tickets and he was trying to tell us what she was saying but it was all spanish and I had no idea what was going on plus, we were not planning on staying at a hostel.
After that, the man that was attempting to help brought us to the bus station to get to the top of MAchu Picchu and it was beautiful. We found and English speaking guide and he gave us the history of the site. We couldn’t believe that it was only used for such a short time! It was quite amazing to see in person. In Pictures you cannot grasp the size or the actual setting. The mountains are green and lush and come up out of nowhere. Jungle all around and SAND FLIES! They are tiny little bugs that just swarm to you and you don’t know you have been bitten until you see the little blood spot. Other than that… Machu Picchu is so beautiful and I have a bunch of photos that I will post at some point I promise!!!
Oh yeah, Camping at machu Pichu is impossible. They make you check all bags when you get to the entrance of the park so that plan fell through and we had no tickets home. Great!!!
We arrive back to the bottom, Aguas Calientes and try calling DORA again. And Once again, no worries miss. We will deliver the tickets to your hostel. We call again…go to the Inca Mayuc Hostel and we will give you your tickets there. This hostel apparently works with the tour agency and was very expensive. The girl at the front has no idea who we are and I got frusterated and called the number again. She kept saying no worries we will deliver the tickets at 8pm. WEll 8pm rolls around and no tickets. I call her again after we found another less expensive hostel and she says no worries miss. We will deliver the tickets to that hostel tomorrow at 11am. We thought it would be a good idea to have someone waiting at both hostels and what do you know…they show up at the original hostel!!! Of course they didn’t go to the one that they were promised to! Big mess with Dora. Kinda made the experience uncomfortable.
On the best note though, Machu Pichu was amazing and the best part of the entire trip by far!!!!
