Cusco to Aguas Calientes - Majesty & Mountains

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Up at 0545 to drop our packs into left luggage and then down to Plaza de Armas to catch a S4 (NZ$2) taxi to the train station. We hadn’t even gotten out of the cab when we were literally surrounded by people selling ponchos, water, coca lollies and the like. We barged through saying “no, no, no”. The cafe at the station was selling water for S4 - the same stuff that across the road was S1 - but we needed change so we bought one and paid with a S100 note.

Breakfast was a ham and cheese sandwich and a coffee across the road at the local market S3.50 (NZ$1.75). We boarded our 0650 train at 0645 and set off on time for the world’s most expensive train journey. Five minutes in the train stopped, reversed and went almost back to the station. Five minutes on and the same thing happened. The rise and angle out of Cusco is so great that the train must change tracks several times to start the journey.

We passed through some pretty average scenery. Litter was scattered everywhere and it was probably our best look yet at life outside the tourist parts of the cities that we have visited.

We pulled into Aguas Calientes at 1050 and got off the train straight into the local markets that were set up to ensure you passed every single vendor prior to getting to the street - much like the fruit and vegetable section of Countdown Supermarkets. Jo had picked a hostel from Lonely Planet but they didn’t have a double room but the girl who ran it walked us down the road to another one. We picked up a double with private toilet and shower for S50 (NZ$25) at Hostel Inti Paqarek.

Aguas Calientes has the promise of being a nice little town but parts of it are in disrepair and it is littered with tourist restaurants and hostels. The town’s population is only 2,000 but there would have been at least that many tourists.

We crossed the stream that divides the town and walked the few blocks that make up the locals side to find a cheap lunch. We ended up at Elsita, a small cafe that did a set meal of vege soup, chicken & rice and jelly for desert for just S8 (NZ$4). Then it was off to the ticket office for Machu Picchu entrance tickets S122 (NZ$61) each and tickets for the bus up at US$7 each.

The buses that take tourists on the steep climb to Machu Picchu are 27 seaters and need to be quite small as the dirt road is barely 1 bus wide in parts. The road snakes its way up for about 5kms or so with no barriers and very little road to work with. Three or four times we came across buses on the return journey but the drivers, no doubt well practiced, seemed to know exactly which side and when to pull over.

Once at the Machu Picchu I took a quick look around for Poppa's sunglasses and camera case that had been left there some thirty or forty years earlier but unfortunately I had no success.

Machu Picchu is absolutely without doubt the most magical place that either Jo or I had ever been - and between us we can tick off the Grand Canyon, Yosemite and the Pyramids, amongst others. To even have a rough idea of the place, take every picture or TV show you have ever seen about the place and magnify it several times - not in terms of area, just majesty . We took photos and video ourselves but it simply can’t relay the feeling that Machu Picchu gives you.

Instead of heading for the ruins we headed off on a path that our map reader wasn’t sure about. I won’t give away the identity of said map reader but suffice it to say it wasn’t me.

The pathway cut up a mountain (that we later found to be Machu Picchu Mountain) on an almost 1:1 incline but the higher we got, the better the views became of Machu Picchu and Waynapicchu. Jo could only make it in 5 minute spurts before we had to rest but, with a little encouragement, after almost 2 hours we reached a lookout point that was (at least in my travelling experience) the best spot in the world. We sat there for a good hour and peered out, taking a few photos before taking only 20 minutes to get back down.

We walked through the first part of the ruins and spotted four wild chinchillas before being cleared out by security just before dusk at 1730. We caught the bus back to Aguas Calientes where we discovered the only ATM in town was out of money (and had been all weekend) so we were unable to get tickets for the next day. We had planned to get up before sunrise and get to Machu Picchu at dawn but we weren’t going to be able to do that with no access to money.

Fortunately we had S70 to our name so we had dinner at Chayña Cafe… S10 for vege soup, grilled trout and chocolate pancakes.

We were shattered and asleep by 2000.

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