Peru: Last Day at Aguas Calientes

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we should have spent only one night at Aguas Calientes and taken the late train back to Cuzco from Machu Picchu instead of staying the second night. We scheduled two nights because we wanted to spend every minute of the second day at Machu Picchu and not have to worry about catching the train. And that's what we did. However, trains only return to Cuzco in the afternoons so we were stuck in Aguas Calientes for another day. As I noted before, there is really nothing in Aguas Calientes that anyone needs to see. Tickets for Machu Picchu and the bus are expensive and we had explored the site fairly extensively already so we didn't return for the third day. Also, Dan woke up a little bit sick and wasn't up for too much adventure.

Caleb and a puma in the main plaza in Aguas Calientes

What we ended up doing was walking along the river walk down to the site museum that the guidebooks all recommend. It is near the bridge that crosses the river along the bus road and is within walking distance of town. Unfortunately, the museum was inexplicably closed during hours they were supposed to be open. Since service all over Aguas Calientes was just as poor, this didn't surprise us.

Urubamba river from Aguas Calientes

flowers along the river walk

While we were down near the bridge, we walked over to a small butterfly enclosure and the one lady working there gave us a nice tour. The whole thing only took 10 minutes, so it's not something that you should go out of your way to do, but it was fun for Caleb.

Caleb holding a caterpillar

lady at the butterfly enclosure showing us one of the butterflies

From there we crossed over to the other side of the bus road and followed the railroad tracks and some ambiguous signs through the jungle towards a botanical gardens and waterfalls (cataratas). The small University botanical garden was not too far up the track and it was a guided tour that lasted about 15 minutes and cost about $3 each, then you can stay and explore on your own. It was very nice. They had many varieties of orchids and other plants and Dan took a lot of photos. It would have been smart to have put some bug spray on as we were getting lots of bites here.

We did not continue on to the waterfall as Dan wasn't up to it. We walked back to town, got some snacks at a bodega, sat on benches along the river and ate lunch.

After lunch we walked around the small town a bit and did some shopping. The only thing we bought was a piece of Machu Picchu serpentine rock that was sphere shaped and polished that Dan was able to get a good price for. In general, Aguas Calientes is NOT a good place for shopping. The quality of the products is poor and I saw a lot of Chinese import stuff they were trying to pass off as Peruvian and it was all overpriced. Most of the weavings are made from poor quality acrylic yarn with synthetic dyes instead of the beautiful, hand-dyed sheep wool and alpaca weavings you can find elsewhere. There's a market full of stalls by the train station, but I don't recommend it for anything except killing time. I think it is the way it is because they tend to sell things to tourist who are doing a whirlwind South American tour and are only in Peru for a couple of days just to see Machu Picchu.

I'll be doing a post on shopping in Peru soon, so check back.

We caught our train after having to rush back to the hotel for our bags since they didn't deliver them to the train station as promised (we sort of expected that) and made an early evening journey back to Cuzco to our nice hotel there.

Our last excursion in Peru was a trip to the Sacred Valley of the Incas and I'll be writing about that soon too.

Copyright 2009 text and photos. All rights reserved.

Peru: The road to Machu Picchu

This is post number ten on our Peru trip.

The only reasonable ways to get to Machu Picchu are to either hike the famed Inca Trail or to take the train. We took the train. The Inca Trail system is vast and covers most of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, etc. But the trail modern day tourists take is the one from the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu (33 km and four days of backpacking, climbing and camping at high altitude) or any number of shorter treks starting at several points along the way. A guide is required to hike the trail and most of the time you will also get porters, gear and have your meals prepared for you. I understand that you'll need them because the trail is tough.

We took the "backpacker train" which is basic, but has a snack cart and bathrooms. The photo above is of the "vistadome" train which has the curved windows you can see on top and somewhat better seats and service. I think the price difference was $65 per person.

Any way you decide to get to Machu Picchu will cost quite a bit. The train company has a monopoly and the support required to hike the trail costs money. Furthermore, all trails lead you through the town of Aguas Calientes which sits at the base of Machu Picchu mountain. It exist purely to serve the tourist trade (and I use the term "serve" loosely as the service is awful) and hotels there will cost you twice as much as in Cuzco and will be half as nice. After spending two nights there we decided there is really nothing in Aguas Calientes that anyone needs to see. Spending one night there and taking a late train back to Cuzco would have been better.

If you'd like to hike the Inca Trail for a little way you can get off at the last stop before Aguas Calientes and hike the last rugged six hours or so of the trail.

Caleb on the train

On the train

The train trip from Cuzco takes approximately four hours and generally leaves early in the morning. The tracks descend from 10500 ft elevation in Cuzco to 8500 at Machu Picchu and they actually stop the train and back it up a zig zag track at one point. The tracks travel along the Urubamba river, past farmland and ancient terraces, mountains, glaciers and into the jungle. For some reason I had it in my mind that Machu Picchu must be at a higher elevation than Cuzco since it is called a "citadel," but it's not. The train company will only let you take one small carry-on bag per person. We left the rest of our luggage in the luggage lock-up room at our Cuzco hotel.

Urubamba river

The trip takes you into the jungle the nearer you get to Machu Picchu--take bug repellent

We got off the train in Aguas Calientes, which is the end of the line. We were met by a representative from our travel agency and porters from our hotel. The porters took our bags and the rep walked us a short distance to the bus station. Aguas Calientes is a small town and you can walk anywhere there.

View from the bus road near Aguas Calientes up at Inca farming terraces above the river and below Machu Picchu.

From Aguas Calientes you either have a long hike or you take the bus for a 25 minute ride up 14 steep switchbacks to Machu Picchu. The bus is also expensive, but they are convenient and save you a lot of time and energy. They were nice Mercedes Benz buses and made trips constantly back and forth all day. The photo above shows a view out of the bus window.

The bus road to Machu Picchu--taken on day two from the Sun Gate above Machu Picchu--it sure seems steeper than it looks in this photo when you are actually on the bus.

My next post will be about our first afternoon in Machu Picchu!

Sue

Copyright 2009 text and photos. All rights reserved.