Aguas Caliente, the charming town at the foot of Mt. Machu Picchu

It fascinated us!
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Denny and I stayed one night in Cusco and then headed to Aguas Caliente for two nights with a final night again in Cusco. In Agua Calientes we stayed at the Hotel Presidente ($60/night) and enjoyed a beautiful room with a river view. It is so humid here that even our travel wear take twice as long to dry out after hand washings.

Were we to plan this trip again, we would spend even more time here in Aguas Caliente and less in Cusco. The sales people are less aggressive and seem to have a greater variety of wares. The restaurant people are more friendly and serve equally as delicious foods.  All dining starts with a pisco sour!  Tonight we had an appetizer to die for! It was mango, cilantro, onions, some type of delicious Peruvian beans and crispy corn kernals served with garlic bread strips.  I loved it so much that I went back a second day and oredered it as my lunch!

There is a lot of pride evident. The entire town is clean and well kept which is refreshing.

Walking along the Urabamba
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Aguas Caliente (hot waters -- named for its hot springs) is the town from which tourists take buses up to Machu Picchu.  The buses begin to leave at 5:30 AM so early risers can make it to Machu Picchu for sunrise and the last one returns around 7 (sunset) each night.  We took one of those 5:30 AM busses (see Machu Picchu entry) but first we'd like to share about our stay here before and after that spectacular visit.

In our usual way, Denny and I meandered the town people watching and looking for the unusual.  We followed the raging Urubamba River to the very top and walked along its shores, gaping at the sheer volume of water and how quickly it is dropping.  It is totally unrunnable at is at this flood stage (and probably always)...is SO violent -- would be suicidal in our opinion, to try.  There are monstrous rocks and huge keeper holes all along -- with no eddies in which to recover -- through this town and on for miles and miles.  Funny how beautiful that can be even while frightening!

The booths in the market.
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Like in so many South American towns, there is construction everywhere with many buildings unfunished and seemingly abandoned as well.  It is almost comical how the structures climb the hills in various stages of completion and with such varied building supplies.  Clearly the tourist industry is growing quickly with the demand beating the supply.  Book early, don't wait til you arrive!

The morning after we visited Machu Picchu we sat in the town square and watched the kids going to school and the dogs establish their dominance.  Moms brought their kids by us to smile and say a shy "hello."  Family is clearly important here and the kids are clean and well dressed.  There is a lot of pride evident.  The entire town is clean and well kept which is refreshing.  You do, however, watch out for the throwing of the "stoop water"  -- shop keeperes clean the area in front of thier wares daily and you just never know when the dirty water will whoosh out in front of you!

The statue in the park
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The sales people here are much more patient than in Cusco, they allow tourists to browse and will talk about their products without appealing to you to buy from them through guilt.  Still the shops get redundant and soon even I can tell quality from quantity.

On one walk we went way up the hill off the paved road and cobbled streets onto the dirt paths.  We found this neat little park complete with a swingset and delightful hodgepodge structure with a condor perched at the top.  Below it a young boy played in a puddle.

All the unfinished buildings
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Mostly the people dress as we do but the elderly women in particular are often seen in traditional dress.  They wear a full skirt with brightly colored blouses, sometimes matching, often clashing.  They carry children and goods in hugs brightly colored pieces of material draped in just the right way for good carrying.  They mostly have waist length hair and like to wear brightly colored tights or knee high socks.  Denny got a few great pictures of them but we hated to be so obvious.  The same with all the happy kids playing everywhere.  We loved watching them!