I don't usually like to take photos of people, but this girl was following me around for a while the next morning as I prepared my bag and all. Nice people living out here.
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I was impressed with this simple fish farm.
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I believe these are called horse tails because of their appearance. Lots of bamboo, fern, and other lush underbrush around here. This is only 13S latitude, you know.
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Many of these mountains were formed by volcanoes and there are still hot springs bubbling up around these parts. That colorful wall is from some hot spring, I guess.
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A good view of the Santa Teresa River which we followed most of the third day.
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If you are going to cut trees, you should definitely plant corn, right, what else?
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Wild turkeys wandering the streets of Playa as we stroll into this town around 2500m. This marks the end of our three-day. It was a challenge, but very scenic with good weather and good people.
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If you boil the petals of this flower, you get a super strong hallucinogen that will either make you crazy for days or perhaps kill you. If you Google hallucinogen, you find the Angel's Trumpet listed under deliriants!
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No particular story for this one except that it reminded me of something in Japan….
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Taking a bus now up to the Hidroelectrica Station behind Machu Pichu. This is the Vilcanota River which flows all through the Sacred Valley. The hole in the wall has more to do with hydroelecticity than anything sacred.
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Hidroelectrica Station is the terminal point on this famous rail line that brings lots of tourists in from Ollantaytambo. We are just taking a short ride to Aguas Calientes for the night.
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Nice views out the top of the train. Machu Pichu is somewhere up there, but it is not easy to pick-out from here.
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More Angel's Trumpets as we approoach Aguas Calientes. This river flooded a couple years ago, killed some people, and left others stranded in the area. You can see it is a pretty narrow valley.
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The small mountain town of Aguas Calientes is famous as the place to stay during a visit to Machu Pichu, but it is named after the hot spring which feeds this nice spa complex.
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This is a very nice setting for a hot spring complex. The village of Aguas Calientes is below and there is a cold river to the right. I wish they had made it look a bit more natural, but the pool did actually have sandy bottoms which was an interesting touch.
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The small river from the hot springs which passes through the town down to Vilcanoto River. Aguas Calientes is a unique tourist town worth a visit even without Machu Pichu.
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