Ollantaytambo

The town at the bottom of the ruins
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We got a local bus for local people to Ollantaytambo - a small town with a difficult name and a train station that takes hundreds of tourists to Machu Picchu everyday. The bus journey was good if cramped. Lots of great scenery, a magician /comedian selling toffees and a geezer who´d bought his first electric kettle (he couldn´t stop flicking the switch. Well chuffed. It didn´t quite feel like 2006).

Most people only stop at Ollantaytambo for one night, as we did, which is a shame because the town is friendly and picturesque, and the surrounding mountains are full of Inca stuff. The best local site is the huge fortified temple that overlooks the town. It´s a bloody steep climb up terraces to get up there, but it´s cool. Lots of views, a bit of vertigo, and some amazing stonework. This is one of the only places where the Spanish got a hiding during the conquest - Manco Inca flooded the valley during a battle and chucked stuff down at the conquistadors. Great stuff.

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We had a wander around Ollantaytambo which is pretty interesting as it´s the best surviving example of an Inca town. Apart from the Inca bridge, which was rubbish. It would have been nice to spend a few more days here and done some trekking but it was time for the main event, so on Tuesday evening we queued with loads of other tourists to get a train to Aguas Calientes - last stop before Machu Picchu. Very exciting.