Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 - 3:03 p.m.
We took the 5:45AM train, James was able to also get on the train, but in the local section, not tourist class like the rest of us. Amazingly enough, the train was punctual with its departure time. Soon we were weaving along the tracks, parallel to the Urubamba river during dawn and I remembered seeing the same train the day before as I trekked the last stretch of the Inca Trail. I thought about the people who must be following in our footsteps a day after us, now trekking along the trail in the early dawn, looking down the valey to see our train, blowing its horn into the lonely morning air.
Most of us slept the two hour train ride until we got off at the town of Ollataytambo, the last village where we stopped at 5 days before, prior to beginning the Inca Trail. We didn't take the train all the way back to Cusco because it would've been like $30 more. We did what many other tourists did, take the train to this town and take the bus or taxi back to Cusco. We hiked up the road and I noticed the Inca temple up the hillside, looking down on the town below. I think a lot of people, tired and weavy, never even notice it. I learned later that this was a site of a major battle between the Inca and Spaniards and one of the few where the Spanish lost.
A couple hours and a bumpy $2 bus ride later we returned to Cusco (about 10AM), got a cab and returned to our hostal. Most of us, including myself, just slept after that.
I had decided while hiking the trail that if I made it to Macchu Pichu I would spend an extra day in Cusco to let my feet heal a little before continuing to travel. The ozzies were doing the same thing, since Callie and Corey were both sick. They planned to go to Arequipa next and then Bolivia. I hoped to meet up with them when they get to Bolivia.
That eve we all went out. We had plans to meet up with Lula and Raphael, but we never saw them, don't know what happened. This was Ross and James last real night out in Peru, they had bus tickets for the enxt day to Lima (20 hours, yikes!). So we all were out pretty late. At the Irish bar that was a favorite of the ozzies we met back up with Mike, a fellow traveler we first met in Nazca. He was headed off to La Paz very soon. I exchanged e-mail addresses with him in the chance we might meet up in Bolivia as well.
I was tired and called it a night with Callie and Corey at 1AM. Ross stumbled in at 3AM and James painting the town red with a few others until 8AM! Needless to say, he spent most of the next day in bed.
