Getting to Sacred Valley

With an 0840 flight departure to Cusco, we left the hotel around 0600 by taxi summoned from the square. At the airport, we were third in the queue and we’d be far too early. Then the power went off and check-in was limited to two counters which had backup power. Then they started taking people from behind us who had imminent departures. All this was quite well communicated to customers in the queue and staff were fairly organised.

We eventually got to the front, got our boarding passes and went airside for security. Once past that, we were able to use the lounge downstairs. It would have been a good evening lounge as the buffet was set up was more varieties of nuts and chips than I had even seen. But only cupcakes in terms of what I’d consider eating for breakfast.  With the power interruption, the wifi wasn’t working so I was glad I didn’t have to pay USD10+tax to use the lounge.

We went back upstairs around boarding time but there was no activity till about 20 minutes after. We walked to the LATAM-branded Airbus 319 (this is the first month LAN airlines had rebranded to LATAM). About 20 minutes after the ETD, the pilot announced that it wasn’t possible to continue the full flight on the same aircraft and we would need to transfer to a replacement aircraft arriving shortly.

After some waiting and a free sweet, we were herded into the terminal building. Our replacement aircraft landed at that time. Just before re-boarding, we were handed a bottle of drink each. They didn’t ask to look at boarding passes and I was surprised other passengers didn’t come up and grab one too, pretending to be on our flight.

We boarded, this time by airbridge, on to a newer larger Airbus A320 and found it to be full too. Our neighbour clarified that she was flying to Cusco, originally via Lima but had been put on our flight. And we saw our previous aircraft being loaded up with bags.

So, it doesn’t appear that our flight had been delayed for 2 hours due to engineering but more for some operational requirements. Not very good for the first month of LATAM’s brand.

The one hour flight was over high terrain so we didn’t appear to be very high off the ground. The seat belt sign was on for a portion and the crew didn’t leave their seats for the flight until pre-landing checks.

Approaching Cusco.

Luggage at Cusco was slow and we had visions of them getting misdirected again. Fortunately, they turned up and we walked out the terminal to see my name on a board. I was glad to have organised a car to Ollantaytambo rather than go by public transport, after the early wake-up and the delay. The price difference isn’t as great as one initially imagines once you take into account a taxi to town then the bus fares. Then factor the inconvenience of finding the hotel or having to get a tuktuk.

The ride took us through the busy streets out of Cusco, up narrow windy roads before getting into the countryside. As we had already seen from the plane, the area has some vegetation unlike the desert we had come from. We saw some beautiful snow-capped mountains too. We arrived at Ollanta about 2h later, to a fiesta (Fiesta Senor Choquekillka).

It was a short walk with luggage through a cobbled alley with gushing water alongside to get to Kamma guesthouse. It was a lovely place owned by a couple of Lima women currently assisted by an Aussie couple.

The rooftop and breakfast area had a good view of the ruins of Ollanta, which is one of the more significants ones in the Sacred Valley apart from Machu Picchu itself.

I was still queasy since a few days and opted for a simple soup for lunch. We took in some of the fiesta before our siesta. Still feeling queasy, dinner was a simple wonton soup but it was with a difference; it was noodle soup with flaps of wonton skin and bits of chicken not wrapped in the wonton!

My days of queasiness came to a watery end after dinner in the toilet. It had finally happened. I don’t believe it was food related as Kim had something similar a week before, and I was unaffected.

Now it is the opposite. And all along, we had been sharing our meals.

I ended up taking two tablets, one after each “sitting” before retiring early. It was probably an overkill, but I couldn’t take any chances with Machu Picchu tomorrow.

On the other hand, we had coped really well with altitude both in Chivay and here in Ollanta, thanks to decent time acclimatising in Arequipa. That was the plan and it had paid off. Our experience with altitude suggests that AMS is quite random. One of us would be sick but not the other and then the roles would swap; and that was despite gradual ascent.