 The Inca trail or not? |
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| or another route to machu picchu? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
deleted_125183 deleted_125183 Post Count: 62 Msg: #1 26 weeks ago, July 4th 2009 | Hi there, | Id be interested in your responses to my question. I'm going travelling through central and south america and have no time limit and no fixed itenary, just the way i want it. I'd like to hike to MP but not necessarily the Inca Trail due to the amount of time you have to book in advance, at the moment and its July now, October is the first available and I dont want to be stuck to that date so far in advance. Id obviously love to do the Inca Trail but see from the Lonely Planet guide there are other options to get to MP, that potentially require a couple of days notice. This suits me and so does this type of travel. Has anyone done any of these other treks apart from The Inca Trail? What did you think and how far in advance did you have to book? Id love to hear from other people who have had to book in advance for trips around central and south america as im just planning on arriving and then arranging trips as and when. Is this possible or does everything have to be booked in advance? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks JohnW7127 John Webster Post Count: 2 Msg: #2 26 weeks ago, July 4th 2009 | Hey dude, | I'm doing this exact trip on July 14th. Be forwarned that it DOES take a LONG time to get to Machu Picchu, especially if youre coming from Lima. Here's the directions a friend of mine wrote out for me which he mostly got from http://thanksforthefish.net/machu-picchu-alternative-route/, following that is my interary so you can see how long it takes. Best of luck. first off, in cusco, be forewarned that many street names are written in their quecha phonetics, comparisons with maps should be made with an open mind. in cusco, i highly recommend staying in the san blas barrio, of which i thoroughly enjoyed the Hospedaje Inka, Suytuccato 848, at the top of the stairs from Plaza San Blas. you can contact the owner to reserve some spots ( americopacheco@hotmail.com ), or probably just show up, it´s about 7 dollars (20 soles) a person, which is quite good by Cusco standards. keep in mind that the altitude is high there, and upon arriving at this hostel, you will have your breath taken away twice, once by the climb up and again by the view of the city. one of my favorite things was watching hail storms roll into the valley sipping mate and playing games. concerning machu picchu, nearly everyone will tell you that there is only one way to get there, which is by the tourist train (unless you´re trying to hike, in which case the inca trail requires a guide, the others do not). while this is what the peruvian government wants you to think, it is not exactly the truth. the alternate route, while it costs significantly less, is an alternate route for a reason. i, however, highly recommend it. if you´re going to other places in the sacred valley, this may or may not be convenient, depending on where you want to go. from cusco, here is the basic plan of action: go to the santiago bus terminal in cusco (this is NOT the main bus terminal, if you´re going by taxi make sure the driver understands that you want to go to quillabamba, not your destination but where the bus goes to) once there, buy tickets to quillabamba for the next morning at 7 or 8AM or whenever it leaves show up on time ride the bus until you arrive in a small town called Santa Maria (you can ask the bus driver to advise you, but just start looking at around 5 or so hours and keep your eyes peeled, there´s a sign when you stop) in santa maria catch a van to santa teresa (you may have to wait for it to fill up but there will inevitably be others doing the same thing you are). make sure that you agree with the driver that you are going to the Hydroelectric plant, not just santa teresa. upon arriving at the hydroelectric plant, start walking along the railroad tracks when you get to the fourth sign ( it´s the one that someone wrote ¨hacia aguas calientes¨on) take the trail up the hill to the right. when you see the tracks again, go left.at one point the tracks cross a small ravine with a river, theres a footbridge on the left. walk until you get to aguas calientes, the whole thing takes about three hours. the journey is sketchy, i´ll warn you. also, you arrive at aguas calientes at night, hopefully before 9PM or so. then go find the ticket booth for the entry passes to machu picchu closes (which you´re going to want to buy asap upon arrival that night). in the morning wake up and take a bus (15 minutes) or hike (1.5 hrs) up the mountain to the entrance. it´s worth it. if you don´t want to do this, take the 140 dollar round trip train, no worries. but my method costs about 25 or 30 roundtrip. My itinerary: July 17th Arr. Lima 11:15PM Stay in Hostel in Lima July 18th Bus @2PM Sleep on bus July 19th Arr. Cuzco @ 11AM buy next bus ticket immediately Stay in Cuzco July 20th Bus to Santa Maria, van to Hydro electric, walk along railroad tracks. Arr. Aguas Calientes @ 8PM buy Machu Picchu ticket Stay in Aguas Calientes July 21th Wake around 4AM walk up MP Stay in Aguas Calientes again July 22th Wake early, walk railroad tracks, van to hydro electric, bus from Santa Maria to Cuzco Stay in Cuzco July 23th Take bus back to Lima Sleep on bus July 24th Arr. Lima Flight leaves @ 6PM Best of luck dude! contact me anytime! deleted_125183 deleted_125183 Post Count: 62 Msg: #3 26 weeks ago, July 4th 2009 | mate cheers for this, thanks very much. can you let us know how it goes on here? | thanks again for taking the time to write down so much useful info. Have a mint time  barrygahan Barry Post Count: 150 Msg: #4 26 weeks ago, July 5th 2009 | I did the Salkantay trail to Machu Picchu and also the Choquequirao trek and I would highly recommend both. I waited until I arrived in Cusco to do any booking as this was you can get a much better price. Haven't done the Inca trail so I can't really compare it to Salkantay, but the Salkantay trek is fantastic. It's twice as long as Inca trail, the highest point is 4600m, and it's nowhere near as crowded. I've blogs about both treks if you'd liek to read more. | Good luck,Barry deleted_125183 deleted_125183 Post Count: 62 Msg: #5 26 weeks ago, July 5th 2009 | Great thanks Barry will read your blogs now. How much did you have to pay and how far in advance did you book? You said that you booked once you arrived in Cusco so im guessing you booked it a few days before? How many people were in your group? Maybe its all on your blog, i'll look now. | Cheers barrygahan Barry Post Count: 150 Msg: #6 26 weeks ago, July 5th 2009 | Salkantay: 180 USD each. there were 9 in our group and we booked it two days before the trek. It's worth spending a few days in Cusco anyway to acclimatize to the altitude | deleted_125183 deleted_125183 Post Count: 62 Msg: #7 26 weeks ago, July 5th 2009 | Cheers, read your blogs, pictures looked great. One semi ridiculous question I have is re: footwear on the trek. We trekked in Thailand a few hours north of Chiang Mai supposedly the 2nd highest mountain in Thailand and we hiked over 3 days. I just wore my converse and they were fine, same too when we hiked in Fiji, but that only took a day, both up mountains, rainforest, caving etc and converse were again fine, im not a massive fan of hiking boots, whats your view and what were others wearing? Id imagine this will be a lot higher and as i said maybe a semi ridiculous question but thought id put it out there. Thanks | barrygahan Barry Post Count: 150 Msg: #8 26 weeks ago, July 6th 2009 | yeah, we wore hiking boots, though some in our group wore trainers. you could probably get away without boots, though there's a steep climb/descent on day 2 where boots are useful. | S A traveller Norah Wilkinson Post Count: 4 Msg: #9 24 weeks ago, July 19th 2009 | I did the same route as John described above, just with a company called River Explorers (www.riverexplorers.com). The trip is called Inca Jungle and in stead of taking the public bus to santa maria, we went some of the way in car and mountain biked the rest of the way into the cloud forest to Santa Maria. We camped and the day after we trekked until santa teresa, very nice area, rain forest like with papaya, banana and mango plantations around. The day after we did rafting in the urubamba river, very nice. After that we went to Aguas Calientes, were we overnight and the day after we went up to Machu Picchu. Very recommendable tour and company. Though more expensive then doing it yourself, but the combination of the biking, rafting and trekking were great! | deleted_125183 deleted_125183 Post Count: 62 Msg: #10 24 weeks ago, July 22nd 2009 | Great thanks Norah |  henty sarah henty Post Count: 12 Msg: #11 24 weeks ago, July 22nd 2009 | I know this might be a stupid question but did you take your own sleeping bag or did any of the trek companies provide sleeping mats? Is sept a good time to go in your opinion? | Sorry to jump on this thread as havent had a reply from my last postings. cheers sarah Number of Users: 5 | Number of Posts: 11 | |||||||||||||||||||
