There are few more iconic pictures of must see sights in this world than Machu Picchu. We've had a few friends who have traveled there -- one couple our age who actually did the four day hike along the Inca Trail a few years back. While their experience was way more strenuous than ours, the end result (minus the blisters) was undoubtedly the same - the wonderment of this location is truly world class.
While it is a top ten must see sight according to Lonely Planet, Machu Picchu is a little off the beaten track for many more luxury focused international travelers. Yet despite its remoteness for some, this same remoteness and the opportunity to hike an ancient mountain trail has made it a mecca for younger, adventure oriented travelers -- especially because food, entertainment, and hostel prices are so good for folks from dollar and euro based economies.
Like many other must see destinations in the world, Machu Picchu was getting trampled and adversely affected by the hordes descending (or more accurately, ascending) on it. Beginning on 01 September 2017, the Peruvian government changed the ticketing scheme, limiting tickets to either morning or afternoon sessions. While cutting down on the number of people spending all day on the mountain, it has also had the effect in increasing wait times to catch a bus for the hair raising ascent from the Urubamba River in Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu. But before you get there, you gotta' get there...
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| Walking to the train from the parking lot |
As noted in our last post, it is approximately a 1:45 hour long (non-stop) ride from Cusco to the train station in Ollantaytambo. While certain times of the year you can catch the Peru Rail local train from Poroy (about 20 minutes from Cusco), we were catching our train on a beautiful sunny day in Ollantaytambo.
At the train station entry gate, you need to show your ticket to enter. There are two different train companies - Peru Rail and Inca Rail - offering tickets. Each company has three levels of trains ranging from basic to luxurious so take your pick. We took the middle option -- Vista Dome -- on Peru Rail. We waited for our train in the waiting room (designated by the green sign below), getting a cup of cafe latte and a surprisingly good empanada for our brunch time train.
If you are taking the top end Hiram Bingham train, you have your own waiting room and check in point.
The aptly named "Vista Dome" offers really good visibility of the scenery along the river valley. The seats are two by two (we had some recline on one train none on the return train so this feature must vary from coach to coach). Given a choice, you want to sit facing forward on the left side of the train going to Aguas Calientes (thank you Incas Expert Travel) and on the right hand side facing forward on the return trip. This gives you a view of the river and the Inca walking trail both going and coming. The Vista Dome trip is about 1.5 hours each way. We took the 10:55 train which got us into Aguas Calientes about 12:30. We were served both snacks and drinks by uniformed conductors enroute -- and on the return train the following day, we were treated to a dance (the very colorful gentleman below) and a fashion show of truly beautiful Andean produced clothing. The products, skirts, shirts and jackets were all beautifully made of Alpaca wool but when you live in sunny southwest Florida, not very practical.
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| Sign indicating Inca Walking Trail |
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| Stop along the Inca Trail |
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| Walking from village to home along the tracks |
After our 1.5 hour ride beside the river - a very angry river exhibiting an amazing velocity of muddy brown water in a never ending series of seemingly death defying rapids and eddies, we arrived in Machu Picchu.
We were immediately contacted by our Incas Expert Travel Representative who whisked us and our bags to their office where we met our guide, Peter.
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| Our guide Peter |
Peter took us along to the bus station where our tickets were punched (scanned) for the hair raising 20 minute (probably 30 minutes at normal speed) bus ride up to the Machu Picchu monument. As we swayed back and forth on the dusty roads, our first thought was of the crazy bus ride from the port of Sorrento Italy and the Formula 1 qualifying driver who had us hanging from the bars on each switchback up the hill. Yes - we survived that ride and we survived this one too but dang, we were pretty wide eyed when we parked at the top. In addition to the buses going up and down, there were hikers going up and down along the road which looked like no fun at all since the road was dusty so we saw a few bandanna covered faces as they "blurred" by us...
Honestly though, once you are up there and start you tour, all of that is forgotten as we listened to Peter talk about Hiram Bingham's "discovery" of Machu Picchu and what we've learned about this amazing city in the clouds since that date. I think the thing I took away from our visit is that unlike many ancient wonders, Machu Picchu is actually an entire working city with upper class and middle class homes, growing areas, water culverts, religious areas, and astrological observatories. In so many places worldwide it seems that only the religious buildings have survived the years, leaving us to wonder where and how the people who worshiped in these places lived. I guess my closest analog to Machu Picchu would be Pompeii and Ercolano (Herculaneum) where entire living breathing cities were frozen in time by volcanic ash.
Another thing that we appreciated was learning how the Peruvian government is keeping part of the monument in original condition -- original condition being covered with trees that had grown on the mountain plateau over the centuries after the city was essentially deserted. By keeping part of it in original condition, current and future Peruvian university students can learn the art and science of discovering, excavating, preserving their cultural artifacts.
Bus Turnaround up top
The sun came out for our iconic vista shot
If you want a little added hiking and a breath-taking vista, you can do the Waynapicchu loop which according to the sign takes two hours. The loop starts at the sign on the left and takes you up to the buildings in the top of the picture to the right.
We must have taken several hundred pictures during our 4 hour guided tour with Peter so these are just a small sample of our cache. Needless to say, Machu Picchu is now in our memory scrapbook, right up there beside our day long experience at the temples of Angkor Wat, emblematic of ancient civilizations that pursued art and science in such a way that they could build cities we marvel at today. I think one of the things I liked best about our visit was that we got to see it as both a city in the clouds and a city in the sun, looking out over a forest of green to the river below.
After arriving back in Aguas Calientes, we headed to our hotel -- the Casa Andina Standard. The hotel was nothing fancy but quite functional and the guy behind the desk was wonderful. He upgraded us to the coolest room ever - right on the river - we slept with the windows open that night and were lulled to sleep by the white noise of rushing water.
With our bags stowed in our room, we headed out into town to see the sights. Aguas Calientes is similiar to Ollantaytambo in that people are in town to sleep, eat, and see the nearby sights so there is a lot of hustle and bustle all hours of the day and night.
Bus Turnaround up top
The sun came out for our iconic vista shot
If you want a little added hiking and a breath-taking vista, you can do the Waynapicchu loop which according to the sign takes two hours. The loop starts at the sign on the left and takes you up to the buildings in the top of the picture to the right.
That is the Urubamba River flowing through the valley below. The food storage building in the picture on the right uses the exact same architecture as the one I'd seen in Ollantaytambo the previous day.
Pictured above is the Temple of the Condor
After arriving back in Aguas Calientes, we headed to our hotel -- the Casa Andina Standard. The hotel was nothing fancy but quite functional and the guy behind the desk was wonderful. He upgraded us to the coolest room ever - right on the river - we slept with the windows open that night and were lulled to sleep by the white noise of rushing water.
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| View from our Casa Andina Room |
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| Monument in downtown Aguas Calientes |
We had lunch at Inka Grill House before we caught our mid-day train back to Ollantaytambo. We were a little bit leery at first - Mexican food in Peru - but we lived in California for a long, long time so we had to give it a try. We ordered Chicken Burritos and when they arrived, they looked a little different than we expected but they were really tasty. If you've noticed a theme in Peru up to this point in our trip that would be that we were having really good meals regardless of where we were eating -- kind of reminds us of Italy -- another place where it's hard to have a bad meal.
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| Interesting Look but very tasty! |
As we walked around Aguas Calientes, we snapped lots of pictures and we've added a few just to give you a feel for the local flavor. The streets around the town were very clean and it is clear that they are spending money to put their best foot forward. All in all, I wouldn't say that Aguas Calientes is a "destination" that stands on its own as a place to visit but it is a really nice place to hang out for a couple of days while you are taking in the wonder of Machu Picchu.
Our train ride back to Cusco and ultimately our flight back to Lima were smoothly handled by our Incas Expert Travel crew. From a planning perspective, the only thing I would have changed was to have made our Sacred Valley tour an all day, one-way excursion, by checking out of our hotel in Cusco at the start of our tour, and checking in to a hotel or pension in Ollantaytambo and catching the same train the next day.
This would have had us in Cusco for one night on the front end, a night in Ollantaytambo, a night in Aguas Calientes, and another night in Cusco - a total of four nights which I'd say is the minimum required to do a good job of seeing things and getting a chance to eat great local cuisine at night. The other timing thing to consider are the trains you take back and forth. The 10:55am train arriving Aguas Calientes at 12:30 gets you there in time to catch a bus for the afternoon Machu Picchu window. While we could have gone back up the hill to see Machu Picchu the next day, this would have had us catching a train in the later afternoon -- 16:22 -- and getting back to Ollantaytambo around sunset and driving back to Cusco in the dark over somewhat sketchy roads.
After spending the time we'd allocated for this segment of our trip, and reflecting back now, we'd have spent at least 3 nights in Aguas Calientes to see Machu Picchu at sunrise and an afternoon hike to Waynapicchu. We'd also spend three nights in Cusco, so with air travel back and forth, a week would be the ideal amount of time to see these sights properly. If you are interesting in hiking the Inca Trail, it would probably be best to allocate an additional 6-8 days - 4 days for the actual hike and 2-4 days getting your altitude adjustment taken care of.
When we got back to Lima, we spent our last night at our new favorite hotel, the Belmond Miraflores where we were welcomed back like we were old friends. The sun came out for our dinner with our Naples friends, Fred and Debi, who had arrived that day aboard Oceania Marina -- the ship that would be our home for the next 18 days of our adventure across the south Pacific.
When we planned our 7 day sojourn in Peru, we thought we were just "checking the box" since we were already going to be there to catch our ship. As we sat down to dinner on our last night in Peru and reviewed what we'd seen and done with Fred and Debi, it was pretty clear to us and to them that we'd had one of our most memorable weeks ever. Peru is now on our "Must Revisit" list...
