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Published: February 16th 2006
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Look! Tourists!
Madness at the Aquas Calientes train station Train: Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (http://www.perurail.com)
Hotel: Aquas Calientes (Machu Picchu, Peru) A very early start at 5:45AM as we had to get to the train station for Machu Picchu. The train is the only way to get to the ruins now, unless you hike in on the Inca trail. We had the hotel pack us a couple of lunchboxes for the trip. We planned on spending the night in Machu Picchu village, to spend more time in the ruins after all the tourists had left. The train station was complete chaos, with hundreds of tourists milling about, we managed to lose our tour guide who hadn't yet told us which hotel we were staying at! The Vistadome tourist trains are brand new, with panoramic windows on the roof, as most of the trip is spent in the canyon, you can look out above to see the mountain peaks. The ticket price had just gone up to $100 just a few days ago! There is also a cheaper 'backpacker' train, about $60. The trip lasts about 3 hours each way, arriving into Machu Picchu at 10 AM and departing at 3 PM; most of the tourists only come for the day. The weather was gorgeous all the way until we got to MP Village, where it started raining! The train literally stops in the center of town. All the tourists filed out and got onto buses that drove up to the ruins, which are actually several miles away from the village, and up a 800 ft climb. We looked around for our guide but didn't find them... which left us in a pickle, not knowing where we were supposed to stay. We luckily did find another guide who was able to show us where our hotel was located; a very basic place (musty, and with stains on the wall that looked like dried blood), but there's not much choice in the village. The hotel was very close to the hot springs. We waited around a few hours, but the rain kept coming. Finally about 2PM we decided to go up to the ruins anyway, as most of the day trippers would now be leaving. On the way up we passed busload after busload of tourists headed down the mountain. It is getting expensive to visit the ruins, with the $100 train, $20 entrance fee, and $12 bus ride! We had already paid for the bus ticket and entrance fee as part of the tour, but they were only good for one day (tomorrow), so we had to pony up $64 for just a few hours in the ruins! We sloshed about the ruins in the mud until finally the clouds started lifting about 4:30.. the famous vista lay below us! The ruins are quite magical, especially in the afternoon light, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves at that point. We caught one of the last buses down to the village then went up to the hot springs to relax. They have upgraded the springs considerably since I was there in 1998; there are now several different pools of varying temperature.
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