Inca Sacred Valley (a.k.a. tourist bussiness center)..

..or, don't get overcharged because the original price was mumbled to you.

By the time I got to the hotel Jorge and his cousins were staying at, after a whole/another night on the bus, they already made plans for the day: a private taxi-tour of the Sacred Valley, and an afternoon train ride to Aquas Calientes (Machu Picchu). Our $100 train journey (round trip) was starting at 4:30pm, and this way we had most of the day to discover the Valley. The prices (in Nuevos Soles) they were quoted (the day before) for the whole tour, were: 180 for a basic tour, and 240 for an extended one. Just to make sure, we confirmed with our friendly driver that we want to do the basic tour, but when double-checking the price of the extended one his response was, "Did I tell you that? ..hmm, ok."

The drive through the valley was truly magnificent. All the Inca ruins, with the agricultural terraces, such as the town of Pisac, and other archeological sites looked amazing. And the altitude, at which they were constructed, with the Andean scenery in the background, really took my breath away. Our driver kept entertaining us with anecdotes about the Inca culture and facts about Peru and the region, at the same time pointing out interesting sites. As it turned out, he was also a "skilled" photographer (framed pictures fairly well ..without cutting off limbs or pieces of important scenery:)). During the tour we also ended up going to the place of true value for the Incas, the salt production terraces. That was a true gold for them, not some shiny yellow metal, which they had plenty of.

So, more or less at 4:00pm we ended up at the train station, and when the time came to pay, a surprise came with it: 290 soles. When asked what had happened to the 240 quote, he said, "...but I took you here, and here, and there...” I have to say, I was pretty irritated. But being with others, who for the most part didn't really say anything about this development, showing rather a slight surprise, I had to pay my part of our new price.
We got on the train and began our final 2-hour journey towards Machu Picchu, the town of Aquas calientes. $50 for such a short ride is a robbery, but what can you do if it's the only way to get there ..pay it.