Going to Machu Picchu

Sometimes, it's all about the timing and the decisions you make at that time. I met Allen at the Cusco hostel reception on the first day and then decided in an hour that I will tag along with him to Machu Picchu the next day.

To do this spontaneous massive change in plan I had to

• Shop for warmer jackets, leggings and socks
• Cancel my hostel stay for the next 2 nights
• Work out whether I could get the train tickets at a reasonable price for the next day out (in line with Allen's already bought train ticket) 
• Make sure the Machu Picchu trail entry is still available for purchase (approximately 1000 people/day is the limit, luckily it was low season in September)

Luckily, everything went smoothly, I manage to get a reasonable 117USD return train ticket to and from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Caliente. We completed all of this in one evening then headed out the next morning.

There are many different ways to get to Machu Picchu

• Train (departing from Ollantaytambo, a town 2 hours away in the sacred valley)
• Hiking with a local company either on the the infamous Inca trail or on another local popular trail which I forget the name of (3 days, 4 days or even 5 days)
• Do your own hiking (we met a French guy who made it there himself)
• There's a secret way of taking taxi or collectivo to a small town's power station then hike to Aquas Caliente (this is mostly used by the locals)

Anyway, here's what Allen and I did

1. Get a 2 hour bus to Ollantaytambo (the buses were on strike so we tagged along a Spanish speaking tourist and eventually got a taxi to take us there)
2. The taxi dropped us at Ollantaytambo square and we had to walk 15 minutes to the train station
3. Train takes us to Aguas Calientes, the village situated below Machu Picchu
4. Stay a night at Aguas Calientes
5. Wake up at 4am in the morining to walk 30min to park bridge entrance which opens at 5am (flat road)
6. Hike up the vertical trail for 1.5hours (depends on your skills, some people do it in 30minutes) This is really really difficult for someone like me who just started backpacking and isn't exactly sportive.

And this is one of the easiest and chill out way of getting to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu, obviously, is awesome. Standing at the edge, waiting for the mist to clear up then all of the sudden, the sun comes out shinning warmly on this highly prized ancient ruin. At this moment, the pain of climbing 2.5 hours in the morning disappears completely. Of course, I have to mention the very fun weather we were given that day. First the sprinkle of rain and fog, then the hot sun blazing down then the finale of gradual sprinkle, normal rain then crazy rainstorm. We went to a cliff where you can see the entire city, hid under a tree with strangers, chatting and eating cocoa leaves then made a dangerous descend to get a bus back to town. It's all a bit strange at this stage of the backpacking trip, but I love every moment of interacting with strangers and observing the life of another part of the world. 

Machu Picchu at 6:30 am, before the massive bus taking tourist crowd arrives