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Published: October 6th 2009
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Time is running out. I need to be in Buenos Aires in just over a week and I have still to do possibly the one visit which everyone who comes to South America does, Machu Picchu. The Inca Trail is one of the ways to get to Machu Picchu, but this is very expensive and currently has a waiting list of at least four months. There are alternative treks which you can do, the Lares trek and the Jungle Trek, just to name a couple. These are easy enough to book up, but both take four days in order to complete. Taking into account the time factor, I decided to do Machu Picchu myself. There are ways to get to Aguas Calientes, which is the town nearest Machu Picchu, but in true backpacker style I want to find the cheapest. The route I was going to take is as follows:-
Bus - From Cuzco to Santa Maria (approximately 6 hours)
Taxi - From Santa Maria to Santa Teresa (approximately 45 minutes)
Taxi - From Santa Teresa to the Hydro Electronico in Santa Teresa (15 minutes)
Walk - From the Hydro Electronico, along the train tracks for 12km
to the town of Aguas Calientes.
Walk - From Aguas Calientes at 4.30am to get to Machu Picchu for 5.30am.
Another early start beckoned. I caught the first bus from Cuzco to Santa Maria, which cost me 20 soles (approx £4). The bus was nothing special, especially for that price, but it got me to Santa Maria in one piece, abeit a little later than planned. I managed to get to the Hydro Electronico, without a hitch and then meet three people from France who were doing the same route as I, so I walked up the train tracks with them.
Note to reader, these train tracks are still in use, so every time a train would pass you would have to jump of the tracks. The trek itself up the tracks isn’t difficult, what works against you is the light. We managed to get to Aguas Caliente just as it got dark. The weather changes so quickly in that part of the word. Within twenty minutes it can go from day to night. We managed to find a hotel for the night and bought our tourist ticket for Machu Picchu. The ticket itself was 124 Soles,
which in itself is probably the most expensive thing in Peru. There are is two-tier pricing structure in place, for which nationals of Peru pay half that amount, but that is still very expensive for the average Peruvian. Anyone that has travelled South America will know that it is very evident that there is a two-tier price structure for almost any good that is sold in that continent to a westerner.
The alarm goes at 4.10am., which sounds early, but already the town of Agua Calientes is awaking to the noise of doors being shut and people making their way up to Machu Picchu. I left the hotel at 4.20am and there were already people queuing for the bus which will takes you Machu Picchu, which doesn’t start until 5.30am, and people who have decided to walk up have started to make their way through the town up to Machu Picchu which is a 70 minute walk away. I arrived at the gates of Machu Picchu at 5.30am with my French pals. The weather in the first 70 minutes of the morning that I had seen was bad. Clouds were evident, rain was coming down hard and visibility was
no good. In any case I still got a ticket for Waynapicchu which is the big mountain next to Machu Picchu, and they are limited to 300 a day. My friends decided against it due to the weather.
The gates opened for Machu Picchu at 6.a.m prompt and I made my way around the sights. The ticket for Waynapicchu was for 9am, so I had 3 hours to look around and then fingers crossed in that time the weather would have picked up enough to allow some good views from Waynapicchu. By 9.a.m, the sky across Machu Picchu was covered in sun and there were no clouds in the sky. It was perfect weather to climb Waynapicchu and look down at Machu Picchu. My friends were kicking themselves because they didn’t get a ticket, so climbed Waynapicchu myself. This was probably my favourite part, as you could get right to the top, sit down and see for miles, and apart from the other ten people who also had slogged their way to the top, there was no-one else around. The views were spectacular once you got to the top of Waynapicchu. I stayed up there about an hour then
made my way back down. I spent another 3 hours in Machu Picchu looking around the different areas and then walked back to Agua Calientes.
I was too tired to head back to Cuzco that afternoon, so I stayed one extra night. Trying my hardest to be pro-active I set off at 5.30am to walk back down the train tracks. For 2 hours the weather was torrential rain. I got back to the Hydro Electronico cursing the fact I had set off in rain, but thought for my trouble I would be back in Cuzco by early afternoon at the latest. I managed to get back to Santa Maria at 9.40, ten minutes earlier and I would have been on a bus back. The next one wasn’t until half one, so I had just under four hours to kill in a town that has nothing. I went to the internet cafe, the internet wasn’t working. There was nothing to do except sit and wait.
Half one came and when the bus didn’t arrived, I asked the coach operator if there was an issue. No issue was the reply. The bus sets off at half one from another town
and won’t be here until 2.30pm now. I just look straight through this woman. I felt sick because I had spent 2 hours in the rain for no reason. I could have slept longer, stayed dry and still made the same bus I was going to catch. When the bus arrived, someone was sat in my seat, so after much debate he finally moved. Then four hours into the journey, the bus got a flat and it took the driver 45 minutes the change. I finally walked through the doors of my hostel at 10pm, 16.5 hours after I had first set off from Agua Calientes.
I only stayed in Cuzco for one more day after that and then headed to the border to get into Bolivia.
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The Shref
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Jealous
Mate those pics look amazing! defo going othead to Peru soon without a doubt!!