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Published: April 2nd 2006
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PISAC RUINS
Could you imagine looking out your window and seeing this everyday?! THE SACRED VALLEY AND MACHU PICCHU
The Sacred Valley as a whole is beautiful. Surrounded only by mountains, it is so peaceful and quiet. Each day was better than the next! The weather was awesome, and it was pretty cool to be higher than the clouds everyday.
PISAC
Our first adventure was to go to Pisac and explore the ruins there. AMAZING!! These ruins are second only to Machu Picchu. What a great warm up for the main event. Look at the pics and you decide, we went just before sunset so the views were even that much more beautiful.
The three of us took a collectivo bus from Cusco to Pisac which costs 2 soles each. Upon arrival we had a great lunch and walked around the market (which runs every Tues, Thurs, and Sun).
We ended up finding a great place to stay Apu Linly Hostel (yes like the Simpsons), it is a new place (4 mths old) a few blocks from the main square. We paid 10 soles each for a single and 12.50 each for a double with a bathroom, this place has clean bedding and hot water, plus breakfast and snacks!
URUBAMBA/OLLANTAYTAMBO
Pisac ruins
Pretty good for second best! The next day we headed out on another bus from Pisac to Urubamba for 1 sole. Urubamba is a cute little town with not much to do, so we checked out the main square before heading to Ollantaytambo to catch the train.
Ollantaytambo also has some nice ruins worth checking out, and since the train does not leave until 8 pm we had all afternoon to check things out. We found a great place to eat just right of the ruins which gives you a 3 course meal for 8 soles, also new.
AGUAS CALIENTES/MACHU PICCHU
The train takes about 2 hrs max and costs 44$ return to Ollantaytambo. Upon arrival to Aguas Calientes we found our hostel and rested up for the main event! This place is full of tourist shops and restaurants, has no cars, only tourist busses to and from M.P., we are guessing they got them there by train.
Overall, we liked Aguas Calientes as a stop off point in our travels. We stayed here for 2 nights, the extra night is nice because after a day of
hiking, a bed sounds pretty good.
THE MAIN EVENT!
So we set out to
Ollaytantambo ruins
If you look closely at the center you can see the face that the Incas carved into the mountain. This face represents the creator God watching out over the people. explore the Sacred Valley hoping to see to Machu Picchu for under 100$. Surprisingly we did it!!
The first bus to M.P. leaves at 5:30 am we took the 6:30 bus and were there in lots of time. The ride up is very nice, it costs 20 soles each way, so we decided to trek back down what felt like the jungle back to Aguas Calientes. The trek was great and only took 45 min, I would reccomend this for sure.
We arrived at Machu Picchu tickets in hand (you have to buy them in Cusco), all excited to get into the park. After waiting in line for a few minutes we got to the clerk who would not let us in!! Jeff and I both had student tickets because we have international student cards, but we did not bring them with us to the ruins. We assumed that once we had the ticket we were good to go, apparently not, they sent us back to the office and we had to pay 40 soles more to get in. A word of advice...bring you student ID even if you had to show it to get the ticket...you will
The money shot
Yes it is real! not get in as a student without it.
So we finally got into the park, the sun was shining (which is rare this time of year) and it was so beautiful. We had a few hours before the tourist who come by train showed up, so we took advantage of taking photos during this time. As the day went on the tour groups kept coming and the park get fuller. All the tours leave by 2 pm so if you stay in Aguas Calientes the night you can enjoy sunset at the park.
The most exciting part for me was climbing up to Wayna Picchu, a one hour hike straight up! The Incas had small feet!! all the stairs are sooo small. The hike was well worth it, we were up in the clouds, and the view was fabulous! We got some pics and headed out for the trek back down the midget stairs. We walked around the ruins awhile longer before treking back to Aguas Calientes.
Basically the pics will speak for themselves, but the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu is all its cracked up to be.
We arrived in Cusco this morning, after a
Houses
These used to have thatched roofs, back in the day. train ride and we were able to take a taxi from Ollatan. to Cusco for 10 soles each, making it a much faster trip, only one hour.
In the past 5 days we have seen 7 seperate sets of ruins...Jeff says we are ruined!!
We head out for Puno tomorrow morning by train for more adventures.
Amanda and Jeff.
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DAX
non-member comment
LOVE THE BLOG!!
WOW! IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE HAVNG SO MUCH FUN.I WAS WONDERING WAS IT HARD TO GET UP TO MACHU AS I'VE BEEN TOLD THAT U NEED TO BOOK MONTHS IN ADVANCE. I WILL BE GOING IN AUG-SEPT MYSELF SO IT WOULD BE HELPFUL TO KNOW.ALSO PLEASE KEEP LISTING THE GOOD/BAD HOSTELS THAT YOU STAY AT THANKS--DAX