The Machu Picchu Experience: Expect the Unexpected

On Tuesday morning, July 2, we departed from Cusco towards Aguas Calientes, the town near Machu Picchu. James, Jessica, and I walked about 12 minutes from our hotel in Cusco over to the train station. From there, we were actually getting on a shuttle that would take us on a two-hour drive to Ollantaytambo, where we would catch a train, which would also be about a two-hour ride.

Marshall was taking an online summer class, so he had planned to take the later bus / train up from Cusco so that he would not miss his class in case the Wifi was spotty. This was a good idea – only then to wake up and learn his professor cancelled class that day! Go figure. But we weren’t able to change his train ticket. James woke up not feeling so well. And I don’t know how he made it two hours on a shuttle bus on very bumpy roads with some stomach issues. But sometimes you are put to the test – especially when traveling! And he passed.

We had booked our train and bus tickets through Inca Rail. I actually booked these many months in advance, but just a day or two before our scheduled time, they changed our train which was supposed to go straight from Cusco to Aguas Calientes to a bus / train combo. This meant when we would first take our shuttle bus (a 12-passenger van type vehicle) to Ollantaytambo, and then we would connect to a train from there to Aguas Calientes.

Ollantaytambo was a town founded by the Incas. To this day, the town maintains the original outline from the time of the Incas. That makes it a little challenging if you were driving around there – Incas didn’t have cars! Once in Ollantaytambo, we walked a few thousand feet from the bus station to the train station, guided by the Inca Rail employees. From there we boarded a really neat looking train, where we had assigned seats. This looked like something from a 1930s movie.

We were told ahead of time (on the Inca Rail website) not to bring more than a duffle bag per person, as suitcases were not allowed on board. However, we saw other people with suitcases, and it appeared fine. Since we were staying in the same hotel in Cusco when we returned there the next night, we were able to leave all of our major belongings in that hotel room. We just took some small bags with a change of clothes and some personal items for the one-night in Aguas Calientes. And, of course, I took my camera bag too.

The kind of train we booked on the way up included a meal, which was actually pretty good. And about 30 minutes into the train ride, they told us we could go to a special car in the middle that had very large windows that were open. This allowed us to the see the magnificent landscape as we continued the journey in the direction of Machu Picchu. Alongside the train tracks you could see the Inca trail, where many people actually choose to hike. People start hiking from various points, but many of the popular ones take the average hiker about 4 days. That must be quite an adventure and one that would follow the trail of Hiram Bingham, who found this route when he discovered Machu Picchu just over a century ago.

Once our train arrived in Aguas Calientes, I was super impressed. This town was situated in the mountains – by that I mean, the mountains were right there! And the town was more built up than I imagined it would be. Of course, it all catered to tourists and you can tell there are new developments going up, probably more lodging. We were greeted at the train station by someone from Gringo Bill’s Boutique hotel, where we were staying. He walked us to the hotel (just a 5-minute walk from the train station). It was a super cool place. We must have had to walk up about 6 flights of stairs (no elevator) to our room.

The hotel layout was amazing, almost like you were in a big tree house. They had some lounge rooms around the second and third floors, plus a restaurant and a bar. We were only there one night so we really didn’t have much time to spend there. But we did have what we felt was perhaps the room with the BEST VIEW in all of Aguas Calientes. Since we had booked a room that would comfortably accommodate five people, it was one of the larger rooms. It was also at the very top of Gringo Bill’s and it had a balcony we could sit on and overlook the main plaza of Aguas Calientes as well as look up and all around at the amazing lush mountain landscape.

We took a little rest at the hotel. I opened the big patio doors and laid down and finished the last chapter of the book by author Mark Adams that I had been reading over the past couple of weeks, Turn Right at Machu Picchu. What a great opportunity to finish it, while looking out at the mountains where Machu Picchu lay behind and where we would finally visit the next day. I even tweeted a picture, tagging the author Mark Adams, who responded with “Thanks! Nice view.” How cool!

Later in the afternoon, James, Jessica and I took a 10-minute walk up through the streets of Aguas Calientes to the hot baths they have there. The hotel gave us towels, but we were advised to wear sandals there. I did not bring my sandals, but we were able to buy some cheap ones for the equivalent of about $5 USD at a store on the way there. They then have some changing rooms. There are a few different big hot baths outside, each of varying temperatures, that are surrounded by some amazing scenery. They also have bartenders coming around serving you drinks. It was a pretty relaxing place. I wouldn’t say it was worth going out of your way for if you’re crunched for time. But we weren’t, so here we were.

We then walked back to the hotel and showered up, got dressed, and went out for dinner. James wanted some pizza to just put something in his stomach, which still wasn’t feeling well. Traveling sometimes comes with its issues, especially in a foreign country like Peru. We went to a great Italian place called Intcontri del pueblo Viejo. You can read my full review on TripAdvisor here. I had some lasagna and James enjoyed the Margherita Pizza, while Jessica had a pasta dish. We were also entertained by the waiters, who did some card tricks while we were waiting for our food. The first “trick” didn’t impress me, but the second one amazed me.

We then went back to the hotel and we were expecting Marshall to arrive to Aguas Calientes soon. As I was about to head out the door to meet Marshall at the train station, that’s when James got even more sick. It wasn’t fun. I joked to his fiancé Jessica at one point: “James is just making sure you pass the wife test.” She was really great helping him out. I proceeded to go meet Marshall. When his train arrived, I told him about James getting really ill. When we got back, Marshall insisted that we get him to a doctor. He got on the phone and called an emergency number and they had a doctor and nurse that came to our room from a nearby medical facility. James was able to get some IV treatments. We were up late now.

While all of our attention was on helping James, our trip-of-a-lifetime to Machu Picchu was being put to the test. When you plan a trip out five months in advance for one day to an iconic world wonder, you don’t expect something like this happening.

We had originally bought tickets to do Huyana Picchu, which is an extra hike to an incredible view at Macchu Picchu. While perhaps 10,000 people come onto the grounds of Machu Picchu each day, only about 400 are allowed in to Huayna Picchu – half go in at 7:00 am and the other half are allowed in at 10:00am. While we secured those tickets about five months before our visit, it was only in the last few weeks that I learned that the hike to Huayna Picchu was not exactly strenuous, but would take 2-3 hours round trip and have some challenges for those challenged by heights (as I am!). However, I was ready to go hike it!

At this point, with James feeling as sick as he was, I was beginning to think that extra hike to Huayna Picchu was out. Our park ticket would give us an entrance at 6:00am. This would mean a 4:30am wake-up, a quick breakfast at the hotel at 5:00am, and then catching a bus from Aguas Calientes at 5:30am. In order to do Huayna Picchu, we were going to need to get in that early so that we could make our bus back to Cusco later in the afternoon.

After giving James the IV treatments and some anti-bacterial medicine, the doctor and nurse thought he would be ok to hike Huayna Picchu. But it was now around 11:30pm and I knew that he would not be able to have that quick of a turnaround in five hours, when we would need to wake up. Marshall didn’t care as much for the Huayna Picchu hike, but Jessica was still wanting to do it. However, none of us were willing to leave James behind for that. We decided that we would still set the alarm for 4:30am. If he wasn’t feeling up for it, we would all go back to sleep and wake up around 7:00am. We wouldn’t need to get into the grounds of Macchu Picchu that early if we weren’t going to do Huayna Picchu. James is a big-time hiker so I knew if he was well enough, he would be the first to say let’s do it.

Well, 4:30am came and James said he was not well. So, we went to Plan B and slept until 7:00am. We checked out of the hotel, but they were able to hold the few bags we had brought, and we would be able to pick them up before our train departed for Ollantaytambo around 2:30pm. The line for the bus from Aguas Calientes up to Macchu Picchu was about a 30-minute wait when we got there close to 8am. We boarded the bus by 8:30am and we reached Macchu Picchu a few minutes before 9am.

The bus ride up was quite crazy! Machu Picchu is actually sort of in a valley, but high above sea level (but much lower altitude than Cusco). You wind around the mountains on two-lane roads to get up there. No traffic is allowed up except for these official tour buses. And these bus drivers WHIP around the mountain roads! It was almost scary to look straight down and see how far of a drop it would be if there was some kind of accident. When we were maybe five minutes or so from reaching the entrance to Machu Picchu, that’s when we got our first eyes on it.

WHOA!!!

Are you kidding?? It’s magnificent. I’ve always seen the pictures, but this site was MUCH BIGGER than I could have imagined, even just at first glance, from a distance. The formations of the architecture were large and incredible. Despite having just read a book about Machu Picchu, so many thoughts and questions raced through my mind at once. How did they get those stones up here – especially when it was built four hundred years ago, with no roads or vehicles like these? Well, I would learn that the mountain contained these stones. They didn’t have to bring them vary far. They just cut them and moved them around. I mean it’s still impressive, considering how many of the structures are placed in line with the sun, the moon, various stars, planets, and constellations. Marshall then muttered the famous movie line, “I’m not saying it was aliens…” We all laughed.

When we got off the bus, we then had an option of renting a guide. We did that. And I’m glad we did. He was great and walked us around the entire structure and gave us very thorough explanations over about a two-hour period. When we first found him, he said he was also going to pair us with three other people, a husband-wife and her son. They spoke English, but she had grown up in Peru. Where were they living now? In Casselberry, Florida, which is a suburb of Orlando and only 15 minutes from where I live! Here we were on the other side of the equator, and the family we are randomly paired with to tour Machu Picchu together was from Orlando! I told the group, “As we say in Orlando, it’s a small world after all.” The kid they had was probably about 10 years old and he was hilarious, asking funny questions the entire two hours and attracting much attention from other tourists as well.

The guide was also great for James, who was not feeling very great, but was a real trooper. He had come all this way to see Machu Picchu and he wasn’t missing it because of a stomach virus, food poisoning, or whatever he had. The guide was able to suggest places where James could sit and rest, while we climbed around and ended up back where James was, before moving on to the next part of this amazing place.

One of the great things we were able to do at Machu Picchu was to take a group photo with a giant American flag I had brought from home. We were there on July 3 so I thought it would be great to take a patriotic photo, waving the American flag at the heights of Machu Picchu and posting it online on the Fourth of July. After all, it was an American, Hiram Bingham, who had discovered this place in 1911. I didn’t want to be rude, so I asked our guide if it was ok to do this. He said that was perfectly fine. They seem to love Americans here, but really, they also just love tourists and probably celebrate the fact that people come from all over the world to Peru to see this iconic place. It is often listed as one of the seven new wonders of the world. (Of note: I’ve been to two others on that list: the Great Wall of China and the Colosseum in Rome).

When you go to Machu Picchu like we did, you’re only there a couple of hours. I wish we could have stayed longer. I tried to just stop and look around as many times as possible and take it all in. It was a beautiful blue-sky day, but our guide said it’s just as fascinating to be there when it’s raining. He said most of the year, it’s raining more than it’s not.

James remarked that this place is “not easy to get to.” While it’s an iconic place and is attracting more people than ever before, James is right. From outside the country, you have to fly to Lima. From Lima, you have to take a short one-hour flight to Cusco. From there, there are some various options, but we did the bus/train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes which is a combined four hours. And then once in Aguas Calientes, you take a 30-minute bus ride to the entrance to Machu Picchu. And… that’s if you don’t hike the Inca trail, which some people do!

This place, however, is much easier to get to than it was when Hiram Bingham discovered it in 1911. It’s much easier than in the 1950s when people started coming here as tourists, but it wasn’t really opened up to many tourists until about the 1980s. It’s much easier than ever to get here. But it still isn’t easy. However, it’s worth every second and every penny to do it.

I was blown away and ever more fascinated by how and why this was built up here in the mountains, a lost city, one that the Spanish never even made it to because the Incas did such a good job covering the tracks and not letting them know this place existed. The reason we know the Spanish didn’t make it here is because the Spanish destroyed every Inca temple they came across. In contrast, the entire structure of Machu Picchu is still standing and almost untouched (with the exception of some modest renovations and regular landscaping), including the Temple of the Sun here, which we walked through.

While we didn’t quite make it up to Huayna Picchu, that was quite ok. James’ stomach wouldn’t have handled it on this day and I’m not sure my stomach would have handled the dramatic heights anyway. We came here and things did not go completely as expected, but once we laid our eyes on Machu Picchu, we realized there’s no way we could have expected the magnificence of this place. I just can’t imagine what it must have been like to be Hiram Bingham in 1911 and come upon this lost city perched so high up in the Andes mountains, hidden from civilization for more than 350 years. I don’t think we could build something like this today – and in 1911, Hiram Bingham must have thought the same thing as I did when I first laid my eyes upon it: WHOA! But for all of us who have reached this place, the dream of coming here brings a sense of fulfillment and wonder. The natural beauty is just heavenly, and the man-made structures seem other-worldly.

We left the grounds of Machu Picchu around noon. The line for the bus leaving Machu Picchu was quite long, but after about 45 minutes we were on a bus and making the dramatic climb back down the mountain roads to the town of Aguas Calientes. We picked up our bags, got lunch, and climbed back aboard the train to Ollantaytambo before transferring to the bumpy shuttle bus ride back into Cusco – one that caused Marshall to have to demand a rest stop!

Once back in Cusco, Jessica went with James for a follow-up appointment at a medical clinic to get some additional treatments. By the next day he was feeling a lot better. We were not sure what caused it, but likely some kind of food poisoning (beware of the ceviche in Cusco!)

I had a dinner at a little wine bar down the street called La Cantina Vino Italianoa, where I had some delicious pizza and a couple of glasses of wine and posted my review on TripAdvisor. When I walked back to the hotel just a few blocks away, I felt almost drunk on the two (or was it three?) glasses of wine. Then I remembered one thing about Cusco: the altitude!

We all called it a night and got some much-needed rest. Marshall would be leaving in the morning to go back to Lima and then to the United States, while James, Jessica, and I were headed on a short flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado for a two-night experience in the Amazon. We had seen the beauty of Machu Picchu, but for three of us, our Peruvian experience wasn’t over just yet.