Adventures in South America: Machu Picchu, Peru

Last night I took a shared taxi out of Cusco down into the Sacred Valley town of Ollantaytambo. Here, I checked into a hotel by the train station and ate a nice dinner.

I turned in early to get a good sleep before my trip to Machu Picchu! The sun rises early, well before 6:00, and was up as I left my hotel this morning. 

I walked about half a block down to the train station to catch the Inca Rail train further into the Sacred Valley towards Aguas Calientes. 

The train left at 6:40, and it was a beautiful ride.

At 8:00 we reached Kilometre 104. There is no station here, but the train stops to let anyone off who wants to hike the Inca Trail. 

Here, I met my guide, Sam, and we crossed this little bridge into the national park. By the way, the elevation here is 2150 metres.

On the other side of the river, Sam handled paperwork and I arranged my bag and clothing to prepare for the hike. My whole package for this one day Machu Picchu tour--two-way train ticket, the guide Sam, the park entrance, the to-go lunch, the bus from Aguas Calientes, and the bus from Ollantaytambo to Cusco--cost me $400 USD. That is the price for a group tour (up to 8 people, I believe), but somehow I had lucked out and it was just me and Sam!

Immediately as you begin hiking you arrive at the Chachabamba ruins. 

From Chachabamba the trail begins ascending fairly rapidly. There were a few other groups at Chachabamba, but it was nice just hiking with me and Sam, because we were able to put some distance between us and the other groups and mostly hiked alone. Quickly we were up above the Urubamba River valley.

The weather was perfect for hiking--plenty warm, for sure, but the cloud cover protected us from the sun and so it was not excessively hot. Sam is a birder guide, and was very attentive to the wildlife we saw. I was not ever able to photograph the birds we saw, but I was able to capture this little snake, . . .

. . . this beetle, . . .

. . . and some of the flowers, like this one.

Sam made us take brief stops often, but our first longer stop was at this waterfall, where we took a break for ten minutes. 

We carried on, climbing a little higher . . .

. . . until we reached the ruins at Winay Wayna. 

This was a farming village that would have supported Machu Picchu. The farming terraces are what cover most of the area.

And there were about ten houses for the farmers.

And a small temple above the village.

Winay Wayna is at 2650 metres, so we had climbed 500 metres in a little less than 2.5 hours. I am not sure how many kilometres this was, but I think about six. 

From here, the trail was far less steep and much more comfortable. The first half of the hike had been beautiful, too, but on this stretch I was able to enjoy the beauty much more because I was not huffing and puffing as much!

Well, except for when I climbed these stairs!

At 12:15 we passed through the Sun Gate, and could see Machu Picchu way down below!

Sam and I ate our lunch up here, enjoying a magnificent view as we rested and dined.

By 13:30 we were getting close to Machu Picchu. In order to manage the number of visitors each day, visits to Machu Picchu are now done on specific circuits--1, 2, or 3--and each visitor is limited to one circuit per day. Circuit 2 is the most popular circuit and apparently books up months in advance. It includes both a chance to get the "classic" photo from up above the site and a tour of the city itself. Circuit 1, which is what I was assigned only lets you see the city from above, not actually go inside. Circuit 3 does not include an opportunity to climb up above Machu Picchu, but it does allow you to tour inside the city. Sam was determined to get me into Circuit 3, too, and put a lot of effort into it and was eventually successful. From what I could tell, this only involved him working his networks amongst the staff, no bribery, but I am not certain. He made a lot of the fact that I am leaving Peru tomorrow and would be unable to come back for circuit 3 (a lot of visitors come on consecutive days, I think, to see more of the site). I am also not clear if we got away with this because I was alone (i.e., if we were a group of 8 would we have been allowed to do two circuits?). Anyway, it worked out well for me!

If I had to pick between Circuit 1 and Circuit 3, I would pick Circuit 1, because I think Machu Picchu is best appreciated from above. We sat here and Sam was able to point out different buildings and neighbourhoods in the city and give me a good sense for what all I was seeing. 

Although I enjoyed sitting at the viewpoint and getting the overview and would recommend that to anyone, touring the city more closely was also fascinating. We saw houses, temples, workshops, waterworks, farming terraces, the central city square, a funerary space, and so on. It will not be terribly interesting to provide greater details than that (best to go there and do the tour!), but here are some of the photos. 

We toured Circuit 3 for just over an hour, and at 16:30 made our way out to the bus that takes you down the mountain into the Aguas Calientes. This is where Sam lives and so we said good bye, and I went to get some dinner. Sam's family are guinea pig farmers (among many other things), and after he told me all about guinea pig farming on our trek, I was ready to try some. I tucked into this plate of fried guinea pig, which felt like a great way to cap off what had been an epic day.

My train back to Ollantaytambo left at 19:00 and reached Ollantaytambo close to 21:00. From there, it was into a minbus for the about two hours drive into Cusco. I was definitely ready for a shower and sleep by the time I got to my hotel!