A small town and a collection of random people

Ollantaytambo is your basic little small town in the Sacred Valley, inundated by tourists during the day, quiet and tranquil at night.  At the cafe where I had lunch on my first day there, I met Sonia, the 70-yr old British owner of the cafe.  Sonia decided to turn lunch time into story hour, with tales about how she used to be in a wheelchair, but was able to walk again after changing her diet to one comprised solely of whole foods.  She also owned the first prepackaged whole food products company in the UK, though after selling it the company that bought it changed all of her recipes.  She moved to Peru a few years ago and started Hearts Cafe, donating it profits to women and children's projects in the Sacred Valley.

Becky and me

When I went over to the train station to sort out when and how exactly I was going to go to Machu Picchu,  I found out that all of the cheapest tickets were sold out for the next 5 days.  For $10 more I could be in Machu Picchu on Sunday, when I had originally planned on getting there, so I sucked it up and payed for the slightly more expensive ticket.

The next day, I went on a really nice hike to the Pumamarca ruins, a couple of hours up a mountain next to Ollantaytambo.  It took about 4hrs round trip and got me out of the town during the main tourist rush during the day.  Afterward I spent some time relaxing, hanging out, and learning all about the gossip from my hostel.  There are two girls who work there, a 30 yr-old who's mother owns the hostel, and a 20 yr-old with a 1.5 yr old daughter.  The two of them were fighting quite a bit and are happy to share their side of the fight with anyone willing to listen.

After one of their blow-ups, I happened to be near the 30 yr-old, while Jackie, a girl from Chicago who spent this past semester studying in Chile, was near the 20 yr-old.  Of course we had to compare notes afterward.  The 30 yr-old felt that the 20 yr-old wasn't doing a good enough job cleaning the rooms, while the 20 yr-old is upset that she does all the work with the 30 yr-old too busy partying and hooking up with the travelers that come through the hostel.  The 20 yr-old kept saying she was going to leave and find a new job, but by the time I had left Ollantaytambo, she was still there.  Sadly, we found out that she only gets paid 150 soles a month (about $50) and she and her daughter both sleep in the tv room of the hostel on a mattress that is stashed under the couch area during the day.

Saturday morning, Jackie left early to go to Aguas Calientes, aka Machu Picchu Pueblo, and promised to get me a bed there and meet me at the station when I arrived that evening.  I spent the day hanging around Ollantaytambo.  While taking a walk around town, I ran into Ernesto, an older Peruvian man who had some connection to the hostel, though I'm not sure what it was.  He proceeded to walk with me for about 45 minutes until I successfully ditched him.  He was nice, but got a little weird when he tried to make plans to take me to Pisac, a nearby town where he lives, when I returned from Machu Picchu.