Peru Day 5 - Aguas Calientes

It was Saint Patrick's Day, but it doesn't seem like that holiday is celebrated in Peru. Our day started early - we took the 6:50am train to Aguas Calientes, also called Machu Piccu Pueblo. We had some beautiful views of Cusco as we were leaving town.

Aguas Calientes is on the side of a river, surrounded by incredibly steep mountains, covered in green moss and plants - it's incredibly beautiful. Our hostel overlooked the Urumbamba River, which is beautiful - you can hear the rushing water inside the room.

We were hungry when we arrived, so we had lunch at a cute place with a balcony overlooking the river. We had a set menu and had a chance to try roasted Alpaca. After lunch it rained a bit, so we popped into a cafe with an overhang and a cup fof tea and read our books. Jeff was reading a philosophy book by Karl Popper, and I was reading "The New Invisible College," which is about science networks and international development.

When the rain stopped, we decided to walk to the Machu Piccu Museum, whihc is at the base of the walking path up to Machu Piccu. Though it was raining, it was a nice 20-30 minute walk with beautiful views - it's jungle-like here and very green. The walk back was even nicer, because we knew how far it was and it wasn't raining.

Back at our hostel we relaxed, rested, and read books again before heading to dinner. We ate at Chez Maggy and had a ham, sausage, banana, and egg pizza. Jeff tried the Chica Morada drink - made from purple corn - it was sweet and pretty tasty.