South America and Antarctica

We did not get the sleep we had hoped for last night. Keith came down with some sort of gastro/bug in Santiago and it progressed to the point last night where not much sleep could be had. We’ll spare the details but, suffice it to say, it wasn’t good.

So, when the alarm when off at 6:00 am, we were both pretty ordinary. Andrea made it to breakfast but Keith stayed behind, trying to deal with what five Imodium had not yet conquered. After a few texts to Matt’s friend Simon for some personalised medical advice, we decided that the stronger medication was required if Keith was going to make it through the day. We are travelling with a good selection of drugs so we had a couple of options, which was handy.

At around 8:00am our driver picked us up from the hotel for the 25-minute trip from Cusco to the train station at Poroy, a small town of about 5,000 people at an altitude of just under 3600m. Our train was the Hiram Bingham, named after the American explorer. Hiram Bingham III was accomplished in many fields but is famous for being the explorer who publicised the location of the Inca city at Machu Picchu. He did not discover the city; it was known to a few local farmers but he was the one who opened it up the world. The train named in his honour is a beautiful train that features carriages fitted in the style of the 1920s Pullman trains.

The trip from Poroy to the town of Machu Picchu took about three and a half hours, meandering through some small towns and along the Urubamba river. Andrea enjoyed the three-course meal that was served while Keith tentatively tried some chicken consommé. (More on the chicken consommé later!) We did briefly wander down to the observation car at the back of the train, where the band was playing, but we spent most of the time sitting at our table and relaxing (or, in Keith’s case, sleeping).

The towns we passed through were very basic and not particularly scenic. Still, that’s what life is like here.

We also passed by the sky capsule hotel in Ollantaytambo, where the hotel rooms are suspended hundreds of metres above the valley floor, fastened to the side of a cliff!

The train arrived in the town of Machu Picchu at about midday and we transferred to a bus for the 25-minute ride up the winding dirt road to our hotel. After a quick check-in we headed off with a small group, led by a guide provided by the Hiram Bingham train, to explore the ruins of the Inca citadel.

The citadel sits at an elevation of about 2,400m, which is about 900m lower than the town of Cusco. However, the climbs inside the citadel are very steep in parts and we certainly noticed that it was easy to end up short of breath. Not long into the first set of steep steps, Keith’s chicken consommé decided to make an unwanted reappearance! Navigating Machu Picchu in fine health can be challenging but doing it with a dose of gastro certainly adds to the degree of difficulty! Our guide, Graham, was very understanding and did a wonderful job of making sure that we could push on. Andrea, on the other hand, had met a lovely English couple, Simon and Mags, and was far more interested in chatting with them than looking after Keith (which was fair enough!).

We spent about three hours exploring the citadel, which is an incredible feat of engineering. It was built around 1450 and abandoned about a century later around the time of the Spanish conquest. We had a fabulous afternoon learning about the citadel and the history of the Inca people.

Next, we walked back to our hotel for afternoon tea, where we met up with Simon and Mags again. Keith opted for chamomile tea only but Andrea enjoyed the lovely food on offer. We then headed to our room and unpacked a bit, before ordering room service for dinner (which for Andrea meant a lovely meal and for Keith meant another bowl of chicken consommé!). We were pretty tired after not much sleep the night before and a very full day so we’re heading off to sleep now, even though it’s not yet even 8 pm!

Tomorrow, the plan is to just relax and see what the day brings before we board the train in the evening for the trip back to Poroy.