Machu Pichu - the citadel from the 15-century in the clouds. This old Inka estate presents itself proudly at the height of 2430 m, surrounded by the hills of Secret Valley and framed by the Urubamba River. With its dry-stone walls, it is impressive and barely imaginable how it has been constructed.
We booked a tour in advance with a tour agency in Cusco center. They provide the tour guide, tickets for transportation, a place to stay, and the entry fee for Machu Pichu.
There are multiple options to reach the citadel in the mountains. But, in general, you have to go from Cusco to the Sacred Valley, the village Aguas Calientes where the bus and the trail start to Machu Pichu.
To go to Aguas Calientes, you can take a bus, private taxi, a train, or hike.
There are a few trail and hike options, including the Inka Trail, which is also very famous and especially recommended for nature lovers, the sportive, and the persistent visitors. The view should also be breathtaking; however, the hike quite exhausting and challenging. Therefore, it depends if you do the whole walk, that will take fives days or only a part of it, for example, one day.
All the options are explained by the tour agency and compared depending on the time and cost factor. We chose the train, the lowest pricy and most attractive option. The ride from Cusco station takes around 6 hours. We started at midday and reached in the evening. It is a lovely trip with a great view of the river, the mountains, and untouched nature.
In Aguas Calientes, we first checked in to our hotel. An okay standard place with spacious rooms and a pizza restaurant at the ground level. The whole town was built just because of Corona. All the restaurants, bars, hotels, and places to walk around are touristic and focused on Machu Pichu. The food was alright there; however, you couldn't find any local street food.
The guided tour
The new tour guide picked us up at 7 am. You can choose to hike up to Machu Pichu from that village (around 1.5 hours) or take the bus for 20min. I recommend taking the bus first and then hiking down afterward. Even the hike down was very exhausting due to lots of stairs. At least it goes through the jungle and feels refreshing. Also, don't forget that the Machu Pichu tour takes another 2 hours of walking as soon as you arrive there. Pack some water and food, the shop at the entrance is costly.
Due to Covid, the security guards at Machu Pichu are very strict. Positioned in every corner, they watch you not to take off the mask, even for taking some photos, and not lasting too long at one spot. Still, you can be sneaky and capture the atmosphere without a mask if you are fast enough. For me, this guided tour was the most interesting out of the two days. It is a fascinating place, even though it's packed with people and makes you feel like being in a mall instead of a holy place. Spending 3 hours up there is enough. Often people wait till the clouds and the fog passes to take good pictures. The spiky steep mountains surrounding Machu Pichu are unbelievable and an attraction itself.
You might be finished and get back to town around midday. That is quite early thinking about the departure of the train is at 4 pm. So you have lots of time to relax, get food or get some sleep on the couches at the hotel entrance. The city itself is simply built for tourism, full of pricy bars and restaurants and nothing particular to see. On the other side, the train and the train drive are beautiful through the mountains.
The train takes approximately 2 hours, then switching to a bus will take approx. 2 hours till being back in Cusco. What a long day. I fell asleep right away.
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