Day 50 to 56 – Machu Picchu, baby

After I spent a few days in Cusco, which sadly isn’t that impressive, I went on to visit the most important Inca ruins – Machu Picchu.

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. I think Machu Picchu is kind of overrated. But it’s a "must do" after all. Who knows when I will be around here the next time…

It’s also not very easy to get there. First I wanted to do it on my own, take the train to Aguas Calientes, the city right next to Machu Picchu and then climb the mountain. Turned out that the tour agencies book the tickets for the train in advance and so all the “cheap” ones were sold out for 2 or 3 weeks. The available ones were 140US round trip which is a lot in a country where you can buy lunch for 2US ;)

I booked a tour after all. My first one – and even though I met a lot of nice people, I gonna try to avoid those things… It felt like back in school, on one of those trips. In the morning you get told what the day will bring, some people take care of not losing anybody and your food is served in cheap restaurants on large tables…

But now the good parts :)
I booked the Jungle Trail, because the Inca Trail is booked out for month… The Jungle Trail is the more adventures way to go to Machu Picchu. It involves downhill biking, optional rafting and zip lining, and hiking.
First day was a 3000m descent from 4300m to 1300m on bikes. Sounds fun, right? And yes, it was fun :)
But with all those crazy Peruvian drivers on the narrow road, it’s also quite an adrenalin kick.
It took us about 3h to bike down the paved road and another hour for the gravel part.

Next day we went hiking – 7h…
Not much to tell though, it was hiking after all just check the pics ;)

Day three was also hiking. The finish on this day would be Aguas Calientes. We walked the last 4h of our 6h hike to the town on the railway. That meant watching out for upcoming trains which would alert us by the sound and smell of diesel engines.
Aguas Calientes is a town, build in the last 50 years for us tourists. Accordingly are the looks. Full with hostels and hotels in every imaginable price range and all are cramped into the narrow valley – I spent just the night, so I didn’t mind too much.

Day 4: Machu Picchu…
Getting up at 4am (no idea why) and joining the crowds. The Machu Picchu national park opens at 6am – to be one of the first you have to arrive at 5, otherwise you will stand in line for ages. The first few steps on this holy place were accompanied by sleepy moaning and small eyes behind shades. A massive amount of people were pouring into the park and it looked like an anthill at half past 6 already…
Spending almost 8h on Machu Picchu, always escaping the crowds, I need to admit it was nice. Not epic by any kind, but definitely worth seeing it. Also it got a bit better in the afternoon because all the day tourist had to be back in town at 1ish for their train. I had a great nap between the ruins (burned may face though) and enjoyed the mystical place encapsulate in my own world with some nice music :)

Tonight I leave Cusco and also Peru – next stop: Lake Titicaca, Bolivia :)

Have a nice day,
Alex


Biking

2nd day - hiking

Who knew that a pineapple plant looks like this?!

Wait, how do you dance on a pole again?
Sleeping with Hannah Montana (I guess)


3rd day - morning shower
Walking...

Aguas Calientes

Machu Picchu