The Inca ruins of Machu Picchu

Our highlight of the 4-day tour was definitely Machu Picchu on the last day. First, we hiked about 3 hours from Hidraelectrica to Aguas Calientes - an absolute tourist town, similar to San Pedro de Atacama.

Ticket booth to the left for the bus to Machu Picchu 🚍

One restaurant is next to another and in between are hostels. Our hostel was very close to the Central Market and thus also to the bus stop to Machu Picchu. We bought our ticket in the evening and went to bed early (the ticket office also opens around 6am).

Bus prices for 20min ride - at least everyone gets a seat

The first bus leaves Aguas Calientes at 5:30 am and the next ones follow at least every 5 minutes until the initial rush subsides.

Waiting for the bus in the morning

Line to the back...

...to the front luckily quite short 😄

Since we had been waiting since shortly after 4am, we were on the 4th bus and were already at the entrance to Machu Picchu shortly before 6am. The doors open at 6am, so we also had to wait here briefly.

After comparing tickets and passports, we were allowed into the area.

First sunlight over the mountain in front

Short lesson about Machu Picchu:

- Machu Picchu is translated to 'Old Mountain' 🗻
- there is also a young and a happy mountain around it.
- Machu Picchu is actually the mountain next to the Inca ruins and not the one where the ruins are.
- Sports are not allowed (no jumping for photos and no yoga 😆).
- also not allowed are flags of any kind (including flags of football clubs),
- eating on the entire premises,
- or lying down on grassy areas or generally.
- only 4000 visitors per day are allowed - so you might want to inquire beforehand during high season.

Our travel group

- it seems 'cheaper' to visit Machu Picchu with a tour, as the ticket is already included.. (~50€)

The trees and the rocks are presumably not removed, as the entire thing could slide down 😥

- The ruins were discovered only about 100 years ago, but are already around 500 years old.

Our guide led us around for the first 1.5 hours and explained various places of the Inca ruins to us, such as the hostel, the lamastein that looks like the Southern Cross,

Lamastein 🐪

the mirrors and also showed us where the two families lived when Machu Picchu was discovered.

...in the houses with roofs 😜

Afterwards we had time to explore on our own.

The problem was that we passed the point where you could start the loop again without leaving the area, so we had to queue again to re-enter the area for a second time (you are only allowed to exit once - for example, for the toilet - and re-enter).

We went to the observation tower at the highest point of Machu Picchu

(The small house at the top)

and rested here from climbing stairs in the area.

I don't want to know how those people felt who walked from Aguas Calientes in the morning while we were waiting for the bus. But lying down was forbidden as I said! At least after a few minutes we were startled by one of the many security men and told to sit.

Since we all had to sit in the bus to Cusco at 2:30 pm, we all headed back around 10:30 am towards Hidroelectrica.
Because we had taken the bus in the morning, we decided to hike back - which was super exhausting.

The path consists of stairs 99% of the time and sometimes quite high steps. After a short time, the muscles started to tremble extremely when taking a break - which was urgently needed!
We were happy when we arrived at the train tracks and it was only straight ahead or even slightly downhill. The path on the stones is rough, but much easier than the stairs.

We took our time, as we started a little earlier than advised. In between, we took a lunch break at a restaurant along the tracks and had a delicious burger.

We had left a backpack at the restaurant in Hidroelectrica that we still had to pick up. We arrived exactly at 2:30 pm and even had to wait.

The bus system was a disaster 😨😨

Each bus had its own 'shouter' who called for passengers. No one knew about other companies and in general, it was super disorganized.

So we sat and waited to be called

Theoretically, 5 of us had the same company, but Tom and I were called first and separated from the group. We were lucky and arrived in Cusco at 9:30 pm. The other three had to wait forever and reached Cusco at 12:30 am. Currently, there are teacher strikes in Cusco, so many roads are blocked and buses can hardly get through.

Next stop: back in Cusco, Peru

➡Nazca; Paracas; Lima (from 15.7.)