Back to Cuzco.....

Today was a travelling day and a preparation day for our trek.

We received a phone call before departing Aguas Calientes from our tour guide asking if we minded being upgraded from our 3 star hotel in Cuzco to a 5 star hotel as the 3 star hotel was overbooked!!

We reluctantly agreed and couldnt believe our luck!!!!

We had a lazy morning, walking around Aguas Calientes, found a french patisserie and had pastries and baguettes for morning tea and lunch respectively.

A pedestrian walkway enroute to our hotel

Looking back down towards the Plaza De Armas

The only vehicles allowed in town - trains and buses

At about 1pm, the heavens opened which was OK for us because we were already at the train station just about to board our train back to Ollanta which left at 1.30pm. However,this meant there wasnt much of a view from the train.

At Ollanta, we collected our luggage which had been stored at the hotel, found our driver and we headed back to Cuzco. The journey was about two hours via Chinchero which was a farily windy road. By the time we got back to Cuzco, we were both feeling a little green.

We checked in to the Casa Andina Private Collection hotel which was like another world! Opulent and decadent are just two of the words Icould use to describe it.

Our room had a kingsize bed, a separate living area and a huge bath!

What a shame we both felt quite sick! And only 12 hours to enjoy it !!!!!

We met with the trek guide and his associate to pick up the duffle bags we needed to pack for the trip. There was good news and bad news. The good news was that we were the only two people booked onto the trek - with five people looking after us - a guide, his associate, two horsemen and a chef. The bad news?.....a 5 am pick up! I just couldnt think about getting up at 4am, so we negotiated and got an extra half an hours grace....

By this stage it was 6pm. We needed to get some laundry done so we had enough clean clothes for the trek, so we bundled what we needed done into a bag and set off looking for a laundry that could do an express service in 2 hours. Luckily we found one not far from the hotel, who could have it done by 9pm.

We went back to the hotel and decided to splurge on room service. Both not really feeling very hungry, we ordered a entree, main and desssert and shared. I took some anti emetics just so I felt like eating and managed a little. We packed, I had a bath and then waited for the laundry to be delivered. 9pm came and went, the laundry never arriving so Jack walked around to the place. It was closed. We resigned ourselves to having limited clothing for the trek and went to bed. We were telephoned by reception about half an hour later and told that the laundry had been delivered!

We finally got to bed some time after 10, with a 4.30 am early morning wake-up call!