We didn’t know it was possible to be so many people in a minibus, but it turns out that Peruvian people really like to pack themselves to reach their destinations! We are in for the ride! Going to Ollanta from which we should manage to catch the train to Aguas Calientes, the small town at the bottom of Machu. Ollanta is a very nice place actually, and we are glad to be able to spend a couple of days here. We find a hostel just on the main square, unfortunately the room faces the back yard, where roosters are kept…you can imagine. My general thoughts in the early morning are: “Rooster should be a more popular dish. More rooster in the plate, less rooster outside my window!”.

Anyway, we still need to use the 2-day ticket we have in our pockets, so we start with the ruins in the city which feature amazing stone work, in the temple and in terracing. Walking up and down the whole structure is slightly less painful than we would have thought considering the climbing of the previous day, so we are definitely doing good so far. Time to get some lunch and decide how to get to Salineras and Moray, the other two sites we need to visit before the end of the day. It’s already 1pm and we don’t want to spend the money for the taxi, also thinking that it can’t be more expensive doing it ourselves…so we take a minibus towards Urubamba, asking the driver to get us off the closest possible to the salt pits. We are let off in the middle of nowhere, with a direction to follow. In front of us just a huge mountain to climb…once again! 400 meters up in the heat to finally reach a fantastic place: a whole valley full of salt pools.

Of course having entered from the secret back of it, we didn’t have any taxi waiting for us like all the other visitors had. So we hooked up with a couple of people from Santiago who gave us a ride in their taxi! So nice! Next stop is Moray, an immense terracing work which consist of concentric rings. The view just before sun set is really scenic! When we started  to realize that we made it all the way with public transport and decent comfort   we are at some sort of bus stop in the middle of a beautiful landscape and here it is…a storm! Sure it never rains here, but when you are waiting for a bus which never comes then it’s the right time to get some heavy drops! Damn it! Hopefully the overfull bus arrives in the end, and we get back to Ollanta.