Machu Picchu

The only official way to get to Aguas Calientes – the town at the foothills of Machu Picchu is to take the train either directly from Cusco (very expensive at around $100 one way) or from Hidroelectrica ($35 one way) the nearest town to Aguas Calientes. The mini-bus to Hidroelectrica is around seven hours from Cusco down a lot of winding roads, but we decided to take this option as it was the cheapest!

I’d been told the roads were very winding but I thought after bussing around Peru for the last three months I was prepared for anything but, after a few hours even I was feeling a bit queasy. The roads for the most part were paved, we travelled through the mountains and valleys with some utterly amazing scenes of the Andes. It was a gloriously sunny day and because we were coming from high up in the mountains we could see for miles. We stopped a few times on the way for a welcomed break from our descent and a chance to stretch our legs and get a bite to eat.

The last hour or so of the journey was on unpaved roads, full of potholes, that carved their way through the mountains. A single track road with nothing to stop you falling over the edge tested our nerves at times. Finally after seven or so hours we arrived in Hidroelectrica at the same time as lots of other buses and colectivos. There were lots of people crammed into a few restaurants opposite where buses leave you trying to fuel up before making their way to Aguas Calientes. From here you can opt to take the train the rest of the way to Aguas Calientes or you can walk along the train tracks which takes around 2-3 hours. We opted for the walk, it’s supposed to be beautiful, it was warm and there was a good group of us so we thought it’d be fun too.

Hidroelectrica is within the rainforest, it’s a lot more humid than Cusco, very green, at lower altitude and it felt good to be back in a warmer clime again. We began our walk at around 3.30pm and almost instantly we were within great sights of the raging river alongside the tracks with mountains in the background, it was then that the first train passed. Normally when you talk about walking alongside train tracks, it doesn’t sound particularly sensible, however it isn’t a normal commuter train line. It’s solely for tourists, the train drives incredibly slow (around 30 km/hr) to allow for tourists on the train to take in the great views of the valley, on top of this they are used to the high number of tourists that have been walking the tracks for years. The train sounds the horn a long time before it actually passes so you know well in advance that it’s coming, and usually there’s a train guard standing on the front of train looking for tourists and whistling at people who haven’t already got out of the way. Whilst we were walking we saw on average one train per hour so they weren’t too frequent.

Along the walk it began to drizzle but it was so humid that a raincoat wasn’t needed and it didn’t hinder our journey. We really enjoyed the walk, admiring the views and chatting to the other tourists, those also venturing to Machu Picchu and those returning with their stories. There are plenty of campsites and food stalls set up along the way for when we wanted to stop and the view of the mountains made us really excited to get there, especially when we could begin to see some ancient ruins on the surrounding mountains.

Eventually, after leaving Cusco at 7.45am and a long day travelling we’d arrived at Aguas Calientes by 6ish, just as the rain started to get heavier! It was a bigger town than I’d imagined with a river running down through the heart of it as well as along the bottom. Tired, we arrived at our hostel along with everyone else and checked in for the night. We discussed our Machu Picchu itinerary with everyone else in in our dorm room, it seemed we were all aiming to leave at 4.30am to begin the walk up the mountain to the ‘Sun Gate’ where you can watch the sunrise. It takes around two hours to hike up the mountain. There were two girls in our room that had planned to take the first bus at 5.30am, but as the bus is also expensive ($24 return trip!) so we planned to walk.

Unfortunately that night my friend who I was travelling with started to feel unwell. We got her some medicine and sent her to bed hoping for the best the next morning. During that night I woke up several times only to hear the heavy rain outside. I woke again around 4am with everyone else in the dorm and the sound of the rain on the hostel roof was deafening. I couldn’t believe we’d had such perfect weather in the preceding days and now it was horrible! Sadly, my friend wasn’t feeling much better and it was clear walking up the mountain for two hours in the pouring rain probably wasn’t the best idea, we doubted there would be much of a sunrise anyway. We said farewell and good luck to the others walking up and decided to stay a little longer ourselves, have breakfast and then get the bus up.

It was still raining heavily when we bought our bus tickets in town an hour later and by the time we’d queued we were soaked through with only our waterproofs keeping our torsos dry. The sun rose, it was so cloudy there was definitely no sunrise, which I was somewhat glad about otherwise I would have been gutted that we’d missed it. Eventually our bus arrived and we were asked to remove all our raincoats and ponchos before boarding. The bus ride takes 20 minutes and we joined the crowd at the top ready to enter the gates with our ticket slot of 7am. We entered and started our walk to some of the first spots in the ruins where you could see the ‘view’ of the ruins and Machu Picchu mountain. It was disappointing, we couldn’t believe we were finally there, standing in front of Machu Picchu and the view was completely shrouded by the rain and clouds. We picked our way through the viewpoints slowly for the first couple of hours and were wowed by the views of the mountains that would momentarily appear through the clouds and laugh when the ruins completely disappeared again. We were a little gutted we couldn’t see the famous view we’d been hoping for, but that’s the risk in rainy season.

Fortunately as time went on my friend began to feel better and better – the magic of Machu Picchu perhaps! Slowly spots of sunlight peered through the clouds and eventually the classic Machu Picchu Mountain began to reveal itself to us. It was breathtakingly beautiful, even more so because we’d been longing for it all morning. The mountains around and views of the river and valleys below were incredible too. We could see why people love Machu Picchu so much! We slowly moved around the paths looking at all of the ruins, architecture, picturesque views and generally taking it all in. There were Alpacas walking around one of the areas and it was at this point the paths fold back on themselves and you start to walk back towards the entrance.

We started making our way back up the hill, taking lots of photo stops. We had even better views of the Machu Picchu Mountain by this point. We’d been in the grounds since 7am and it was now about 10.30am so we were ready to head off, we were satisfied that we’d got the great views we were after and left with smiles on our faces. Just outside the exit gate was a small queue to get a Machu Picchu stamp in your passport which was a novelty.

We took the bus back down the mountain and had a brief walk through Aguas Calientes again, got a bite to eat and then slowly began our walk back to Hidroelectrica. It was a really hot day by this point, the sun was fully out and we were once again admiring the views as we were slowly walking back chatting away. We bumped into some friends who were on their way to Aguas Calientes and caught up quickly. We excitedly described our experience and what a morning we’d had and told them tips of what was to come. Then we all carried on passing other familiar faces along the way. Finally, after a couple of rain showers we arrived back at Hidroelectrica, tired, hot and ready to head back to Cusco and get a shower!

We were all in awe of our experience that day and left discussing the amazing place with other friends on the bus. We took in the last of the stunning views as we left the valley – after weeks of anticipation in Cusco I couldn’t believe we’d actually just been to Machu Picchu. I now understand why everyone that visits Peru assures you that you need to go, yes it is very touristy and overpriced, however it is one of the most magical and picturesque places I’ve ever stepped foot in and very glad that I didn’t leave Peru without seeing it first – it was the icing on the cake of my already amazing trip to Peru.