Friday, September 11, 2009

Wood-Fired


Got up really early again, since we had to catch a train to Aguas Calientes (AC), the town at the base of Machu Picchu (MP). Getting up early seems to be a theme of this trip - so much for catching up on all that sleep I´ve not been getting. We shared a cab with another Dutch couple to the station, which is 10 minutes out of town. About a four hour trainn ride through some very pretty country.

AC is pretty much like a town dump in Hawaii - crappy to be in, but once you are 10 feet out of it, it´s paradise. Everything in town seems to be under construction - even the places that are finished. Everything is geared toward tourists, so you can´t walk ten feet without being accosted by a tout for a restaurant, someone selling something, etc. Kind of depressing. But, again, it is in a beautiful setting. It is in an incredibly steep and narrow river valley and very tropical (compared to Cusco). Wild orchids growing on sheer cliff walls, parrots, etc.


We had a wood-fired pizza for lunch, which is one of the amazing things about Peru - there are wood-fired pizza joint everywhere. I have no doubt there are more wood-fired ovens in AC than in Seattle, and perhaps Rome. Now, someone only has to tell them how to make a proper pizza and I may never leave.

Went to an OK museum on the history of Machu Picchu, hung out, and then went to bed.

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