Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 I’m so sick of sitting on my butt!!! Aguas Calientes to Cusco, visit with Nici, Cusco to Tacna

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 I’m so sick of sitting on my butt!!! Aguas Calientes to Cusco, visit with Nici, Cusco to Tacna

Again we woke up at 5 am, had breakfast, then headed down to catch the train back to Ollantaytambo. After the 3 hour incredibly beautiful train ride, we got to our stop and picked one of the many taxi drivers to take us back to Cusco, a little over an hour ride. Our driver seemed fine but when he turned off the main road onto an unpaved, middle of nowhere road, I got a little nervous. But all the other taxi drivers did the same, so I didn’t think much of it and Natalie and I fell asleep. Well, we tried, but with the unpaved roads it was difficult. Since we were all super exhausted we didn’t talk until we got out in Cusco. As soon as we paid the driver and he drove away, both Nick and Chris started ranting about how disturbing our taxi driver was. Apparently they were both quite concerned about the detour and about the fact that all the other drivers passed us and we were the only car for quite a while. Nick was worried he would try to rob us and leave us while Chris swore that he was going to take out our kidneys and sell them on Ebay. Come to find out, each one had developed his own plan on how to kill the driver in case he treid anything. I guess Natalie and I would have been SOL!

We had the afternoon in Cusco before we caught our bus back to Tacna. With the few free hours I wanted to go check out another museum and another church. Everyone else agreed but I could tell they weren’t as excited as I was. I assumed they were just tired. But when I couldn’t find my tourist pass that gets you into all the museums, they suggested just not worrying about it and relaxing in the city. Then they told me that they really hadn’t wanted to go to the museums but sinc I was excited about it they would go with me. Such good friends! But anyway, it work out for the best because when we went to check our email, I had an email from our friend Nicki who was also traveling and was in Cusco today. But she was really sick and couldn’t leave her hostel. So we decided to find her and go visit to make her feel better. After an epic search for her hostel b/c it wasn’t listed in any of the official tourist lists (sketchy right!), we found it and she wasn’t even there! The owner told us she had been picked up by the doctor and he’d brought her to the hosipta. So we decided to go get lunch at the same place we’d eaten at last time then come back afterwards. Lunch was delicious and when we headed back to the hoste she stil wasn’t there. But we sat down and played cards until she got back. She found out that she’d gotten Salmonella, probably in Bolivia. She’d gotten a perscription and was feeling better but as really weeak. Luckily she was traveling with her boyfriend so he was able to take care of her. The worst part was that because of her sickness and their schedule, they wouldn’t be able to go to Machu Picchu!