We had to get up at 5am to catch the train we had booked to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo). There was one train before and others after ours, but we had booked the “backpacker” train, which was the cheapest option at US$50 each way. Now considering you can travel the length of the country for less than that on the most expensive coaches, there is clearly something wrong here. Later we found out what is wrong is that the “Peru Rail” is a Chilean company. However, if we had done the Inca Trail, we would have had to book several months in advance, precluding any reorganisation of the schedule and it would have cost us somewhere in the region of US$1000 each, so we weren't complaining much. This is the cheap way to do it!

Warning this entry MAY feature excessive photography

The train was nice enough and I wondered why you would possibly want to pay double for a journey that only takes three hours, until we left, passing another train full of passengers with tables between them and waiters bringing them breakfast on platters, and absolutely no riffraff like us on board. Lucy, Joanne, and Zdenek all slept on the train, but I didn't. I just don't sleep easily in transport, also the scenery was quite nice. When we arrived, the people in the hostel were really nice, and one girl in reception told us where the locals eat to avoid gringo prices. We found a place with a S6 cena menú which was perfectly alright, then we bought entrance tickets for the next day and went to bed very early.

The reason we went to bed so early is that the next day we had to get up at 3am to ensure that we were able to get a ticket for Waynapicchu. Waynapicchu is the distinctive mountain towering over the main complex of Machu Picchu. We had heard you get great views from there so we wanted to be in the first four hundred, because only the first four hundred get tickets for Waynapicchu: two hundred are allowed in at 7am and the rest at 11am. We set off not long after 4am and headed down towards the entrance, head torches at the ready, however it was just after full moon and it didn't seem like the lights would be necessary, despite the hostel (and the Machu Picchu entrance tickets) insisting that you bring torches and spare batteries. There was certainly a small crowd heading the same direction as us, but we were in no danger of missing out on our rightful places up Waynapicchu.

Pink-faced people at the gate

There was still an slight air of competition and it was quite steep, but I had weighed myself on the control-freak hostel owner's scales in Puno to discover, after the Bolivia Diet I was only 87kg, a full six down from my peak after Argentina, so it was going to be easy for me. By the time we got to the entrance at the top of the path, at about 5:30am, lots of people had steam rising off them, and nearly everybody had bright pink faces. Now that the sun was coming up we could see some of the stunning scenery we had been climbing through. The surrounding looked quite like the karst peaks we had seen in Halong Bay in Vietnam and Yangshuo in China.

Similar to karsts

Surronded by mountains

Then we all has to stand in line and wait for the gates to open at 6am. Just before the gates opened the first three buses arrived; they would all get to go up Waynapicchu and none of them had to go through what we did. We all agreed that Waynapicchu tickets should only be available to people who have walked up from Aguas Calientes. Then, when the gates opened someone went down the queue, asking whether we wanted to be part of the 7am or 11am group for Waynapicchu. We said 7am, because we wanted to get the early morning views of Machu Picchu and avoid climbing in the midday sun; however everyone else seemed to have received counter-intuitive advice and asked for the later entry. When the gates opened and we all piled in, the 11am crowd all headed sharply up to the left. They obviously knew what they were doing. Or thought they did.

Llamas

Joanne next to nice Inca wall

Not sure what this is. Cute though

Hard not to grin

Houses to the right, temples and stuff to the left

Across the plaza to houses

Almost as soon as you are through the gate, you get lovely views of Waynapicchu and you can already get a feel for the size of the place. Round the first bend we were met by a herd of llamas who apparently live in Machu Picchu, keeping the grass short, I suppose. Most of the buildings aren't too badly ruined, but there large piles of boulders here and there, and none of them have roofs anymore. We headed in the direction of Waynapicchu in case we had estimated the distance badly, but we were there in no time and hung around looking at other nearby bits. We took so many pictures that I can't be bothered continuing very much with the description. It is an amazing place. Machu Picchu was one of my reasons for wanting to travel and it wasn't disappointing.

Waynapicchu and Huchuypicchu

Joanne and Waynapicchu

Me and Waynapicchu

Us!

Something sacred

When the gates for Waynapicchu opened we had to queue again, then sign a register. Most ominous. The track up the mountain was quite difficult going, and very steep in places; nothing for a seasoned hillwalker such as myself, of course, but the others struggled a bit, especially Lucy. Near the top of the path, some typical Inca terracing started; this is usually used for agriculture, but here the ground was ridiculously steep. Then we saw that at the top of all the terracing was a ruined house. Insane! Somebody had built this path to access, and built all this terracing as a vegetable garden for one house. Someone must have really hated the rest of the community or been very important. As we got higher the views of Machu Picchu started to disappear as clouds started to rise out of the forests we had climbed through that morning. I imagined that it was actually all of the sweat form the early arrival, rising to form clouds. I wondered if this is why most people wanted the later tickets. For a while the view was obscured, then much nearer the top is started to clear up again and it stay completely clear for the rest of the day.

Start of path up Waynapicchu

Joanne struggling a bit

First view from above

Crazy terraced garden

Crazy steep path

Moon behind the Waynapicchu house

Waiting for the view to come back

The View is clearing

A bit higher and it's definitely clearing

Me and Mach

There's also terracing further down

Crowds at the top (it was much worse on a bit)

The top of the hill only has a little space and you can see why they restricted the numbers; otherwise it would be like lemmings up there. The views are fantastic. The stonework, the architectural, and engineering achievements of these people who didn't even have the wheel, are very impressive indeed, but what really makes this place is the scenery. What a place to build a town: at the top of a mountain, surrounded by other beautiful mountains and valleys, and from the top of Waynapicchu you can really appreciate the full context of Machu Picchu. I was really glad that we had got up so early and managed to secure our free tickets to the mountain. The first bit of the way down was even steeper than the way up and most people were going very slowly. In front of us was a group of about five middle-aged Canadian women. They had apparently been adopted by a young Glaswegian guy, who must have been working for the Scottish Tourist Board. He was keeping the ladies laughing the whole way down, offering to take their walking poles at tricky bits, and taking their hands when necessary. By the time we overtook them at a wide bit, they had started calling him their “path angel”. Good work! All Scots are like that, of course.

Incredible terracing and Huchuypicchu

Big mountain nearby

More garden, I presume

Back near ground level I decided I wanted to climb the smaller mountain, Huchuypicchu, closer to the ruins, but nobody else would join me. They would wait for me, they said. I set off quickly, not wanting to hold them up to long and soon I had to squeeze past some slower people on the trail. Not long after that I was aware of a bad smell. Checking me shoe I realised that I had stood in something, and my stomach told me it was something human. I tried to wipe it off as I was walking and retching, but the smell still followed me. I pushed on faster, still retching, hoping there would be lots of grass at the top, but the haste I had added to my speed just caused me to trip, and I fell on my knee, ripping the new trousers that I had bought in Cusco to stand in for the ones with the crotch rip. I really wasn't having much luck with trousers! Anyway, at the top I was able to clean my shoes more and get fantastic views of both Waynapicchu and Machupicchu that are closer up than viewing one from the other.

Terracing up the side of Huchuypicchu

The top bit where we all were

Top of Waynapicchu close up

We spent the next few hours just wandering around the site, taking photos, lazing about in beautiful places, and trying to take in as much of the experience as we could, simultaneously trying to ignore the lingering aroma from my shoe. Eventually the crowds really started to fill the place up and some small black flies, just like the evil ones at Iguazu Falls, started attacking us. The locals all talk about mosquitos, but this was not a mosquito as we know it, it was more like a midgie, but the bite is much itchier and each one actually draws blood. I wonder if to Spanish speakers “mosquito” just means little fly i.e. mosca + diminutive.

This rock is meant to have power

Oh yeah I feel it now

Curious llama

The "power rock" is meant to mirror the mountain profile

Joanne and llama

Llamas

Awesome Inca stonework

Temple of the Three Windows

Looking down on the housing

Huchuypicchu

Someone on top of Huchuypicchu like I was

Except nobody took a photo of me

Views from higher up on Machu Picchu

We were there!

Joanne was there!

Pose

More Chinese or American

Views from higher up on Machu Picchu

Views from higher up on Machu Picchu

Chased off by the little flies, we decided to see what remained of the site and be off. The last bit was an Inca bridge, which was another fifteen minute walk. The bridge was another incredible feat of engineering, in fact the whole path along to the bridge was, but it was undergoing some reconstruction, so who knows what state it was in before. The strangest thing about the bridge is that it didn't seem to go anywhere: it clearly crossed a difficult gap on the contour the path was on, but then it seemed to peter out. Maybe it was all just eroded and there used to be a path beyond the bridge heading up to the next pass, but it wasn't obvious. Anyway, Machu Picchu is an awesome place and everyone should go there. The ruins are great, but it's really the scenery that makes it stand above any other ruins I've seen.

Joanne and Inca Bridge

But where does it go?

Flower

Waynapicchu from near Inca Bridge

This is the Inca Trail

View from Inca Trail

Machu Picchu

We had planned to get the bus back to town, but when we discovered that the $7 did mean US$7 and not just 7 Soles, we decided to walk back down again. It was purer that way anyway, wasn't it? We celebrated with beer and coca sours (another take on Pisco sours), and Zdenek bought a kilo of cheese from a street vendor. Happy days.

View of site from ground level

Aguas Calientes

Coca sour and Cheese

Looking pleased

They make everything from coca

And it is good for everything, as David said

The next day I thought my shoes had been through enough and I wasn't convinced they'd ever smell right again, so I threw them out. The rest of the day was spent at the baths the town is (or used to be) named after. Quite nice, very cheap, but oddly they have a sand bottom which makes the water look really dirty. Then it was back on the train to Cusco.

End of shoes

Machu Picchu was the coup de grâce

written by

The Happy Couple on November 9, 2009 from Aguas Calientes, Peru

from the travel blog: Michael's Round-the-World honeymoon

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Location, Location, Location

Aguas Calientes, Peru

Warning this entry MAY feature excessive photography