Urgh!
So I was supposed to be at MachuPicchu yesterday, having worked pretty hard to book my train tickets and the entrance to MachuPicchu. We got up around 4am to leave for the station, sat on a replacement bus service for 2 hours, sat in the train station at Ollantaytambo for 2.5 hours (where we should have made our connection for the town near MP), eventually realised the trains weren´t running, waited around for another hour or so while Rail Peru discussed their options and finally were herded back to Cusco on another bus (2.5 hours) where we could queue for another hour to collect our refunds.
This done, there was still the matter of changing the dates on our tickets for MachuPicchu at the Ministeria de Cultura. Let me say, they do know how to take lunch in Latin America.
All in all, a day involving epic amounts of queueing, stamping documents, herding, arguing and resignation.
Today I still had the MP ticket to sort out in the morning, despite the 2 hours in the Ministeria de Cultura the day before. Luckily today was relatively hassle free and all was well wihin 45 minutes! A huge South American success story!
This afternoon I went wandering down the pretty wonky little alleyways in Cusco and discovered a Dutch cafe where I bought byself a warm cinnamony slice of apple pie and a bitter hot chocolate for lunch. Just round the corner and up a couple of steep little staircases in the backstreets I was amazed to find a really beautiful little dress shop in which to shelter from the afternoon rain showers. It was a magical little discovery with lovely unique dresses hanging all around the studio and red-haired Irish Eibhlin was sat in the corner at her sewing machine quietly working on new pieces with the stero playing. We had a chat about Ireland and London, the weather and the Irish bar in Cusco and fashion, ceramics and illustration and then I fell for a wonderful dress in the corner, a simple black shift style dress with a big collar and a strip of silvery graphic patterned fabric down the middle.
Eibhlin said I could have some money off as it´s rainy season in Cusco and trade is slow, and she even pinned it and took it in for me so that it fits perfectly!
Such a delight to find a wonderful little boutique in touristy Cusco!
Here´s her website.
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