There are numerous different ways to get to Machu Picchu but here are four of the most popular in short followed by an account of how we did it.
1. The inca trail, which must be booked months in advance due to a limit on numbers.
2. Take the train from Cusco to the town of Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu.
3. The four day zip lining, mountain biking, trekking and jungle tour offered by many companies. Arriving in Aguas Calientes before going to Machu Picchu.
4. Via transport of your choosing over the road to Hydroelectrica then walk or train to Aguas Calientes.
From Aguas Calientes you then take the bus or walk up to Machu Picchu... got it?
Like many overlanders we chose to drive ourselves as far as possible, so headed towards Hydroelectrica. On the way we spent the night in the small town of Santa Teresa. Here you can camp for free at the hot pools in their car park after paying the 5 sole per person entrance fee. We got a little lost on the way thanks to google and held up by road works so ended up arriving in the dark after asking a few locals for directions. The pools are located down a dusty road beside the sacred river Urubamba. The three stony bottomed pools are constantly fed by gloriously hot water from a mountain spring and they are very clean. We could see why they were filled with tourists and locals alike. We were surprised by their quality and even ran into our pampas tour buddies again it was that popular.
1. The inca trail, which must be booked months in advance due to a limit on numbers.
2. Take the train from Cusco to the town of Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu.
3. The four day zip lining, mountain biking, trekking and jungle tour offered by many companies. Arriving in Aguas Calientes before going to Machu Picchu.
4. Via transport of your choosing over the road to Hydroelectrica then walk or train to Aguas Calientes.
From Aguas Calientes you then take the bus or walk up to Machu Picchu... got it?
Like many overlanders we chose to drive ourselves as far as possible, so headed towards Hydroelectrica. On the way we spent the night in the small town of Santa Teresa. Here you can camp for free at the hot pools in their car park after paying the 5 sole per person entrance fee. We got a little lost on the way thanks to google and held up by road works so ended up arriving in the dark after asking a few locals for directions. The pools are located down a dusty road beside the sacred river Urubamba. The three stony bottomed pools are constantly fed by gloriously hot water from a mountain spring and they are very clean. We could see why they were filled with tourists and locals alike. We were surprised by their quality and even ran into our pampas tour buddies again it was that popular.
The next morning we drove along the gravel single lane cliff side road to Hydroelectrica, stopping off along the way to look at the huge waterfall coming out of a tunnel in a sheer rock cliff. In Hydroelectica its the end of the road, so we parked the Dodge at Eliseo Escobar's who had been recommended by other overlanders for 15 soles per night. We then chucked on our packs and followed the train line for 3 hours to Aguas Calientes with me feeling a bit off colour. In Aguas Calientes we paid a little extra for a nice room with cable TV and after buying our ticket to Machu Picchu we hopped into bed and spent the afternoon watching American trash on TV it was magnificent. Just what I needed to feel better and prepare for our 4am wake up for the walk to Machu Picchu. However we did momentarily get out of bed for an over priced dinner. I ordered nachos but received a plate with five corn chips in some guacamole next to a pile of meat and beans, not quite what I had in mind but tasty.
We woke up early the next morning and in the dark walked to the lower MP gate. This opens at 5am for the walkers to head up the hill to MP, most people arrive at the upper official gate before the first bus which leaves Aguas Calientes at 5:30am. It was a hard slog up the hill but in the end we were the 5th and 6th people through the gate which opened at 6am. Once inside we found a high point overlooking the ruins to watch the sunrise and eat breakfast from our backpacks like almost everyone else. It was crazy to finally be there after having written about it in our original journey plan over a year ago.
After the sunrise we got amongst the crowds of people trying to get that photo everyone has of them with the ruins down in the background, checked that off the list then decided to climb the MP mountain before it got too hot. The mountain turned out to be quite hard work, more so than we and obviously many others had thought. At the top though the view was awesome so we relaxed and refuelled eating all of our food and drinking all of our water by 10:30am. Back down the mountain it was time to get a closer look at the ruins so we wound our way through stopping to overhear guides describing the most notable parts. It was all very impressive but somehow after all the build up we felt it wasn't quite as impressive as some of the other ruins we had seen, even the stone work wasn't as good. In the end it's really the location of MP that makes it what it is set upon a high mountain top surrounded by a river and shear cliffs with few ways to enter. By 2pm we were hungry, thirsty and ready to leave (you can not buy food in MP only if you go back to the entrance and its very very expensive $5nz for a can of coke). Instead we brought cheaper food from a local lady hiding out on the track down from MP. Then continued walking along the train track all the way back to the car at Hydroelectrica. Ready to relax we then drove back to the Santa Teresa hot pools for a well deserved soak.
After camping at the pools we got gas and headed back to Cusco. It was an eventful drive with and hour long wait at road works and a collision with a tourist mountain biker who came flying around a corner on the wrong side of the road. He hit the corner of the bonnet with his handle bars and shoulder but was luckily ok, however his bike was not and our bonnet was dented. After checking he was ok we quickly moved on as the impatient and uncompassionate traffic was about to cause another accident as more mountain bike tours came through and the motorists speed past.
Machu Picchu was a great experience just don't forget to see some of the other ruins around Cusco and consider that everything on the way it's very expensive so doing a tour could almost have been cheaper once you allow for gas as well.
Rochelle & Will
Machu Picchu was a great experience just don't forget to see some of the other ruins around Cusco and consider that everything on the way it's very expensive so doing a tour could almost have been cheaper once you allow for gas as well.
Rochelle & Will