Aguas Calientes 2.0
In the morning, the dog (I have dubbed her Luna although that’s certainly not her name) was still sleeping next to our tent, only opening her eyes a bit every now and then when one of us strayed too far from the campsite and her watchful gaze, for her liking. The rest day had done us all good and the distribution of the morning tasks went extremely well and efficient even without communication or discussing who would do what. So within record time we were ready to hit the road. This meant it was time to say goodbye to Luna and although I know one shouldn’t feed other people’s dogs, I gave her two small treats and a lot of pets on her belly and behind her ears before we left. She was overjoyed, especially when Jacques showed her the same love and attention (though without the treats) after I was done. With our goodbyes to Luna said as best as we could, we got on our bikes and hit the road.
We cycled past absolutely breathtaking nature (don’t worry, this time I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves although they don’t manage to convey the feeling of actually being there) slowly but steadily up the mountain until we reached the village of Aguas Calientes. This shouldn’t be necessary to point out, but I’ll do it anyways: it is not the same Aguas Calientes as at Machu Picchu.
We were the only foreigners there and attracted a lot of attention for looking different and being crazy enough to cycle through the Andes. Several families asked for pictures, talked to us, and joked with us. For someone who avoids putting pictures of herself on social media, there sure are a lot of pictures of me on strangers’ phones right now. But oh well. I believe we made their day, judging by how happy and excited they were.
The only uncomfortable interaction we have had with several Peruvians so far and with this group as well: they feel no shame in outright asking us how much our bicycles cost. A very uncomfortable question we avoid to answer and we can’t help but think that no stranger in the Netherlands or Europe would ask all that quickly.
Moving on to the hot springs: we bought a ticket for a private bath and a session in the herbal bath for a whopping €2 per person. And boy these springs really did the caliente part proud. As in: it was literally too hot to enter our bath without pouring cold water into it for 10 to 15 minutes. But once we had gotten used to the temperatures, it was heavenly how warm it was. If you closed your eyes you could even almost pretend that the hygiene standards were up to snuff and like in most of Europe. Almost. It was still great to feel so thoroughly warm again after such a long time. The herbal bath was pleasant as well, slightly less hot but it smelled great and felt like in a large bath full of herbal tea. Tea that you shouldn’t drink anymore unless you want to be seriously sick, but tea all the same.
We enjoyed our baths for as long as we could stand the intense heat, went into the restaurant to charge our phones, and cycled 5 min further away to find a nice spot in the countryside to set up our tent. We slept well that night and were proud to think that tomorrow the last pass would await until we would reach the Altiplano.
distance cycled: 23,3 km
elevation gain: m
Actual altitude: m
time cycled: 2 h, 18 min
