A Little Piece of Heaven

While Phil was staying in Ollantaytambo, Mare slept at the volunteer house in my bed and Phil and I got a room at the KB Tambo Hotel. The hotel is owned by a guy named...KB. Go figure. KB is an american dude who fits the description of "dude" completely. He's a mountain biker, outdoorsy type, who if we were anywhere near a beach might happily find himself on a surf board...well, that is if the way he talks is any indication of the type of guy he is. He's a bit grungy and I'm pretty sure the first time Phil and I spoke to him he had something brown stuck on his teeth. He calls people "man" and "bro" and as one of his staff members Chet (also an American "dude") says, "I like KB because he's 40 but he acts like he's 20". KB is his nickname, which up until this point I've only ever associated the nickname KB to our favorite at WGBH, Karen Barss...but this KB got his nickname from "kind bud", which apparently is a well known stoner reference. To tell you how likely I would be to know that reference...I don't even know if I spelled "stoner" correctly.

Anyway, KB is a really nice, adventurous American dude from Colorado who came down to Ollanta and liked it so much, he started his own biking tour company and ended up buying a hotel and living down here full time. This town is so small that all the Americans down here know one another. In fact, Peaps once hotel-sat for KB when he was away during the slow season. Needless to say, his hotel came highly recommended when it came to choosing a place for Phil and I to stay for a few days.

It was a little piece of heaven. The view from the window was incredible. Phil said it was better than having a TV. You could see the ruins through the window first thing in the morning while lying in bed. The hot shower was a dream and the courtyard is full of gorgeous flowers. And to top it all off, the best restaurant in town was right downstairs, Puka Rumi, which is owned by an incredibly outgoing and warm Argentinian guy and his wife, Alejo and Tini. We ate there at every meal.

Our stay was short lived, unfortunately, because we learned that there was going to be yet ANOTHER transportation strike on both Thursday and Friday of last week, which meant that Phil and I had to make our way to Cuzco in order to make sure Phil didn't miss his flight home on Friday morning. We were grumbling the whole time we were packing our bags because as Phil put it, "It's so mellow here, babe". We didn't want to leave Ollanta and we definitely didn't want to leave our cozy room at KB Tambo. But alas, we made our way to Cuzco on Wednesday late afternoon.