South America Travel Diary: Machu Pichu (Peru)

This travelogue is continued from the previous post.

 

After a day's rest in Cusco, at 11,000ft and going through some altitude sickness, we headed off to Machu Pichu, by Peru Rail. Finally, we were on our way to see another wonder of the world, which was the highlight of our trip!

 

We took Peru Rail from Cusco to Agua Calientes, which is about 4 hours of journey. You can actually do a 4 day trek from half way through Cusco till the top of Machu Pichu but you have to book it a few months early as it gets filled fast. I was happy taking the train to the base and then trekking up! Wouldnt want to do the 4 day trek after spending 30hrs in flight :) It seriously drove me crazy!

 

 

 

 

Agua Calientes

 

This is a small town (or should I say one small road between a railway track and a stream ;-)) at the base of the Machu Pichu mountain. We reached here and spent 2 nights in a hostel and kept this as our base to go visit the Inca city and trek the mountain. "Agua" in Spanish means Water and "Calientes" means Hot, so literally the town is called Hot Water! Don't expect anyone to speak in English here. If you want to survive here on ur own, learn basic Spanish. And if you are going to stay in a hostel, then be prepared to be visited by all kinds of insects and flying creatures and if you forget the mosquito repellant, then god save you!

 

There is a good shopping market at the train station where you get lots of local handicrafts and crystals at a very cheap price. So make sure you have some time dedicated for shopping!

When in Peru, you should definitely try their cocktail - Pisco Sour, that originated in Peru itself. A very unique drink which you wouldn't want to miss at any cost!
 

 

 

 

Inca City & Machu Pichu

 

From Aqua Calientes there are buses every half an hour that go half way up the mountain till the entrance to the Inca City Archealogical Site. It's a 30min ride up and you will be amazed at the way those bus drivers drive without honking, on the hairpin bends and the scary mountain terrains...doesn't matter if u feel the bus is going to collide or fall off the cliff, but they refuse to sound horn! Some talent I say!

 

Inca City & Wayna Pichu in Background

 

The Inca city is absolutely splendid, it is surreal, astonishing, beautiful, brilliant, super awesome and all other adjectives that you can come up with! It lies between the Machu Pichu and the Wayna Pichu mountains and it is architecture at its brilliance. It's now the UNESCO world heritage site and has been restored and preserved. Wonder how the Incas built such a cool city on top of a mountain!! The best time to visit is when it is bright and sunny. We tried to catch the sunrise on top but we were greeted by the rain gods and heavy clouds, so we explored the city for a few hrs in rain and clouds.

 

We visited again in the afternoon when it was bright and sunny, so caught the city in both rain and shine ;-) We hired a local tour guide (who spoke English, of course!) and go the history of the civilization from her as we explored the city. I highly recommend hiring a guide at least in your first visit to the site, else u may feel lost and not understand much or appreciate it. It will take approx 3 to 4 hours to explore the archaeological site and I suggest you visit the site twice if you have the luxury of time, else you may not get to see everything around there. There are multiple short treks that you can do there too...

 

View of Inca city from top of MachuPichu

 

 

You can start the trek up the Machu Pichu mountain from the archaeological site and the trek up takes about 2 hours and return another 2 hours. If you also want to trek the Wayna Pichu mountain, you will have to buy the ticket a few weeks or a month in advance as they allow only 400 people a day there. For the Inca city and Machu Pichu, tickets can be purchased on the spot..

 

The best time to visit Machu Pichu is when it is not raining, that is when it is winter time at the base or in the plains. When it is summer down, it will be raining in the mountains..

 

After exploring the mountains and the Inca city I felt it was totally worth the effort of travelling 30hrs in flight + 4 hrs of train + 1/2 an hour of bus to reach this place!! This is one of those must see places in a lifetime. If you dont see this, you really miss out on something splendid!!

 

 

Disclaimer: Do not reproduce or copy the photos & travelogue without linking back to this post or giving due credits

South America Travel Diary: Cusco (Peru)

The travelogue is continued from the previous post..

After resting for 2 nights in Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil and also its Business capital, we headed towards Machu Pichu, the main highlight of our trip. But it was still a long way to reach there! After about 6 hours of flight we reached Cusco, via Lima. There is no direct way to reach Machu Pichu. You have to either trek from Cusco or take a train to the base of the mountain and bus to the top.

Plaza de Armas

Cusco (or Cuzco) is a small city in Peru in the south eastern part and at one point it was the historical capital of the Inca Empire. It was also declared as the World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1983 and it's also the historical capital of Peru. It's a very small & laid back town (I wouldn't even call it a city). There are cobble stone streets, not even proper roads. It is quite filthy and looks very ancient. Since we went in the winter time, it was super chilly! If you have to see Machu Pichu, you have to go there when it is winter in the base, so it is not raining at the mountain top. Hence we had no choice but to bear the cold! We stayed in Hotel Terra Andina which was extremely posh compared to the city standards! Their service was superior and the food was good too. I highly recommend this place if you are visiting Cusco.

Even though it is very touristy, there wasn't much to see in the city itself. Visited their famous Cathedral, Iglesia del Triunfo which was a short walk from the hotel and got a short glimpse of the city's Plaza de Armas, the main central square. The cathedral is supposed to look very beautiful in the night under the lights but we were too tired to stay up as we had an early morning train. The cathedral is known for a Cuzco School painting of the Last Supper depicting Jesus and the 12 apostles feasting on guinea pig.

This image below is courtesy google. Just wanted to put it up here to show the panoramic beauty capturing the cathedrals and the Plaza together.

And wherever you go, there seems to be a "Bata" store :-) I was suprised to see it in a city as small and remote as Cusco!!

Cusco is a necessity on your itinerary if you plan to visit Machu Pichu. It's a good way to break your journey and stay over, but not much to do there.