Taxi Time

So, typically when we travel, we plan for as much as possible. We plan every logistical step to get from place to place, every event, attraction, etc. This trip, we didn't do that. Partly because of a lack of information/services available online and partly because we were too busy with getting things "nailed down" before we left for two weeks to put in the work of investigating, comparing and booking all of our activities, etc. Yesterday was one of those days that we didn't really plan, but, luckily, everything fell in place perfectly.

We slept in a bit and then had breakfast. Breakfast was excellent, again. We had Dutch Toasties w/Salami again and Banana Pancakes, Fruit, Bread, etc. Our room was a mess, so after breakfast, we re-packed everything. I don't know how to explain it, but it seemed as if we had gained 10 lbs of luggage in each suitcase in only 10 days. I had to use the "expandable" zipper on our two roller suitcases to fit everything in. After getting everything packed up, I decided to clear out my nose (it's really dusty and dry here, so not good on noses) and ended up with a 15-minute nose bleed, which was more annoying than anything.

At checkout, the man at the front desk added up all of our meals (5 meals, sack lunch, and a dessert) and our room rates, it came to 450 soles, about $166 (not bad at all!.) I told him that we would need a Taxi to take us to the 4 ruins (located within 5 miles of Cuzco) AND to take us to 3 ruins on the way to Ollantaytambo (our next destination). He made a couple calls and quoted us 200 soles (approximately $70) for the day's journey. Since it would cost us $35-$50 to simply take a taxi to Ollantaytambo or $35 to see the 4 ruins, I thought this was a pretty good deal (and it was.) Within 10 minutes we were on our way. The Taxi driver (his name escapes me) was a nice guy, didn't speak any English, was maybe in his mid 30's with an exceptional Tom Sellec mustache. We were able to ascertain through broken Spanish that there is a lot of new development around Cuzco, there are tons of dogs and, as a result, very few cats. Also, he thought that the new president of Peru was more or less (mas o menos) good. Apparently political campaigns get pretty serious here and corruption is a big problem. Many houses/sheds were completely painted white and then had campaign names painted on (no little plastic signs here). One of the losing candidates' logo looks like a circle K logo, perhaps this played into his defeat.

More about yesterday later today.