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Traffic isn’t bad here. In fact, it’s non-existent. There are no cars in Aquas Calientes for the simple fact that there are no roads leading to it. The only two ways you can get here are by train and by foot. Your choices by foot are the Inka Trail, for which you have to have one of the limited permits to hike (and only with a registered guide), or by walking along the railroad tracks (not recommended). Not dealing with traffic is really nice.

Once you get here, it’s the sort of place you either love or hate. Actually you could love it and hate it at the same time. It’s an odd mix. For example, the balcony of our room looks out over the rooftops of the town. It looks like a shantytown. Lots of corrugated tin roofs in various stages of disrepair. Satelite dishes. General chaos. But when you get down to street level, it’s clean and organized with a good many very nice looking restaurants and shops, some of them even elegant. The square and the few main streets have a certain charm to them. It’s difficult to describe.

Business is slow here right now. Either May is just not tourist season, or the poor world economy and the flu scare have kept people away in droves. A couple we had dinner with told us that Machu Picchu itself was still fairly busy, but that a lot of people come from Cusco just for the day and never spend much time in Aguas Calientes. They come in by train, get here around 10 and leave by 3.   Certainly when we were walking around at 9 tonight, most of the restaurants were almost empty. We felt sorry for the merchants.  So mark your calendars. Mid May is a good time to come to Machu Picchu. Certainly the weather has been great.

One thing you have to be prepared for here is construction.  It’s all over town.  Poor Gringo Bill’s (where we stayed).  They’re building a municipal building right in front of his hostal, so all of his windows, balconies, etc will be facing a building instead of overlooking the town.  What a pity. 

These construction people work hard.  No vehicles means everything goes on the shoulder on in a wheelbarrow.  Every day we saw guys pushing overflowing wheel barrows up very steep hills (at 8000 feet).  Or carrying a big bag of cement on their shoulders.  From dawn til dusk.  The criticisms I had seen about noise  at Gringo Bill’s on blogs and forums were probably all true, but not Gringo Bill’s fault.  It’s all over town.  I don’t see how you could escape the noise.  It might have been a little worse at Bill’s, since it was a large building being built, right next door.  We didn’t really have a problem with the noise, although we could hear hammering at 9 at night.

 

In case you don’t know, this blog is attached to a website. You can go there to find all about Peru and all the places (and more) that we’re visiting by clicking on HOME above and then clicking on PERU in the navigation bar. Of course, the web site has much more than that. From learning Spanish to learning about all 21 Spanish speaking countries. Enjoy.

Tags:   Aguas Calientes Peru · Learn Spanish · Learning Spanish · speak Spanish · Travel SpanishNo Comments