A Vacation from my Vacation
Life here in Cusco is, for the most part, pretty mellow and relaxing. Still, it's a city, and with it comes some of the stresses of living in a city - noise, pollution, too many people, not enough space. After being in a city for 7 weeks, I was ready for a bit of an escape. Luckily, our trip to Machu Picchu was more than just a day trip. We managed to book ourselves a couple rooms in a fairly nice hostel and decided to spent the weekend in Aguas Calientes, where our friend Niels works as a teacher in a camp for laborers.
Aguas Calientes, as previously mentioned, is only accessible via train. It's not very big, and there's not much to do, and everything is overpriced. Still, it's breathtakingly beautiful, right on the banks of the roaring Urubamba River and squished between several obscenely tall mountains. "But wait, the Urubamba River is cold!" you may say, and yes, in that you would be quite right, so where does the town get its name?
See, Aguas Calientes has these thermal hot springs tucked up in a little valley at the top of the town, so after our trip to Machu Picchu, we decided we deserved some relaxation. We threw on our bathingsuits and trekked up the hill, to find several pools full of hot, relaxing, BROWN water. Turns out the color is just due to the minerals, so we decided to hop in after a bit of mild trepidation. I guess the prospect of soaking in hot water was more enticing than the prospect of avoiding weird discoloration of our bathing suits.
Of course, we soon encountered another problem once we got into the pools. It seems that a group of six foreign, reasonably attractive girls doesn't go long without notice. Within about 30 seconds, we had some creepy middle-aged man trying to sell us tour packages and asking us about our life philosophies. We managed to eventually shake him off, but not before fabricating some rather outrageous lies first. It went like that for much of the evening - creepy man, weirded out girls, outrageous lies, solitude, repeat.
But after two hours of soaking in the pools, we were all so relaxed and rejuvenated that we didn't much mind the weirdos. We were happy, we were calm, we were... hungry.
Then we got burritos.
Aguas Calientes, as previously mentioned, is only accessible via train. It's not very big, and there's not much to do, and everything is overpriced. Still, it's breathtakingly beautiful, right on the banks of the roaring Urubamba River and squished between several obscenely tall mountains. "But wait, the Urubamba River is cold!" you may say, and yes, in that you would be quite right, so where does the town get its name?
See, Aguas Calientes has these thermal hot springs tucked up in a little valley at the top of the town, so after our trip to Machu Picchu, we decided we deserved some relaxation. We threw on our bathingsuits and trekked up the hill, to find several pools full of hot, relaxing, BROWN water. Turns out the color is just due to the minerals, so we decided to hop in after a bit of mild trepidation. I guess the prospect of soaking in hot water was more enticing than the prospect of avoiding weird discoloration of our bathing suits.
Of course, we soon encountered another problem once we got into the pools. It seems that a group of six foreign, reasonably attractive girls doesn't go long without notice. Within about 30 seconds, we had some creepy middle-aged man trying to sell us tour packages and asking us about our life philosophies. We managed to eventually shake him off, but not before fabricating some rather outrageous lies first. It went like that for much of the evening - creepy man, weirded out girls, outrageous lies, solitude, repeat.
But after two hours of soaking in the pools, we were all so relaxed and rejuvenated that we didn't much mind the weirdos. We were happy, we were calm, we were... hungry.
Then we got burritos.
posted by Lauren at 2:10 PM
1 Comments:
You could've avoided the discoloration of your bathing suits by jumping in without them. I personally think that hot springs are enjoyed best that way.
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