We spent half of this day hiking on the lodge hiking trails, and the other half in the city of Aguas Calientes, so I decided to split the photos into two posts again.
We woke up in the morning to birdsong in the trees surrounding our villa. The air had a bit of a chill, but it slowly dawned on me that the floor seemed unusually warm. Heated floors in the bathroom? And the bedroom? And everywhere else? Our eco-friendly lodging might have solar powered hot water that turned off at dark, but it also had something I’d never experienced before – radiant heating seeping up from the floors! Everywhere we stepped, the hard floor tiles were pleasantly warm.
On the way to breakfast, we once again stopped to admire the hummingbirds all over. I couldn’t get enough of watching them zing around the feeders.
In the morning light, we could also see the beautiful flowers growing in small gardens and large planters scattered around the grounds.
We learned from the library at the hotel that it’s known for the huge variety of orchids grown on site. Possibly one of the most diverse orchid collections in such a small area.
Breakfast was served in the same glass-walled dining room that we’d dined in the evening before, but we could drink in the sights of the mountains while we feasted on the varied grain cereals we were becoming used to, and fresh tropical juices.
After breakfast, we had a few hours until we needed to check out of the hotel, so we decided to check out one of the hotel’s hiking trails through the lush forest around us. This post is going to be more photo-heavy than usual, because photos speak so loudly about the beautiful and exotic things we encountered on our short walk.
First, Matt discovered a plant with leaves of extraordinary size!
Around a bend in the path, we came across the stream our train had followed the morning before. We even saw a few trains pass us as they pulled into town.
The trails were rife with exotic flora…
and fauna!
It seemed like every step along the path took us past plants that were more colorful than the last.
Look closely at this one – both colors of berries are growing on the same plant!
Anyone who knows me knows how I feel about mushrooms in my food, but outside growing out of the rocks I think they’re actually pretty cute!
In the first photo they look like they’re growing straight up from the ground, but take a peek from the side – they’re growing off the side of a rock with curved stems like so many lamps on a wall.
Along the stairway that was alive with mushrooms, we saw a sheer rock face. Can you spot the interesting adornments we saw?
Ancient rock paintings!
Walking up those stairs, a small pool with a tiny waterfall. Not pictured: tiny bugs skimming across the surface.
Some of the bugs we saw were better camouflaged than others!
Coming full circle in our hike, we neared the hotel grounds again and walked through the hotel herb garden – the perfect appetizer to the lunch we were headed back to enjoy. This time, we’d be checking out a different hotel restaurant.
The rest of the photos of our morning at the Inkaterra Lodge can be found in my flickr set: Day 6 – Aguas Calientes