Peru: Machu Picchu

Finally he had come: the long-awaited day on which we would go to Machu Picchu, one of the absolute top highlights of the entire continent. Since Jörg had been here before, his anticipation was not exactly overwhelming, but that did not diminish my enthusiasm.

Machu Picchu is a stunning Inca site, not mentioned in any chronicles of the Spanish conquerors, and therefore was never found (and plundered) by them. Until the year 1911, when the American historian Hiram Bingham was led here by locals, only the indigenous Quechua people knew about the existence of the site. But since then, more and more visitors have been flocking to Machu Picchu every year, so that in 2017 access was greatly limited (and greatly expensive). So Jörg was lucky when he was here 6 years ago, back then he could move around completely freely and without any time limits (and much cheaper). But more on that later.

The purpose of the fortress can still only be guessed at by archaeologists. Its location and the 8 excavated access paths (Inca Trails) suggest that it must have been a trading post. The work required to plan and build such a facility in this difficult-to-access location is truly impressive. To this day, no one knows exactly how the Incas accomplished this.

To reach Machu Picchu, you first have to get to the small town of Aguas Calientes, which is closest to the site. And there are not many ways to get there, or at least not at a reasonable cost. Most travelers take the tourist train directly from Cusco, which is actually very expensive. An alternative route goes by bus to Santa Teresa, from where you can march along the train tracks for about 3-4 hours up to Aguas Calientes. There is also a cheaper train from Santa Teresa, but unfortunately foreigners cannot reserve it in advance, but can only buy it on the day of travel at the train station in Santa Teresa (and who wants to miss their expensive pre-booked Machu Picchu ticket just because there was no space on the train. Haha). We decided to take the reliable and at the same time half lazy / half thrifty tour: from Cusco to Aguas Calientes we took the train, but on the way back we would walk on foot via Santa Teresa, as we still wanted to travel through the Sacred Valley anyway.

So we arrived at the train station outside of Cusco early in the morning at 6:00 a.m. and began the approximately 3.5-hour journey to Aguas Calientes. The journey was really pleasant, the train offered reasonable comfort and along the way we had great views of the mountains surrounding the deep valley through which the tracks ran. When we arrived in Aguas Calientes, we first looked around, found the bus stop and bought the bus tickets. Since a lot of money is also demanded here, we also chose the half lazy / half thrifty option: we would take the bus up in the morning and walk down to Aguas Calientes in the afternoon. Cleverly, we also reserved sandwiches for breakfast the next day at the local French bakery.

Punctually at 04:40 the next day, we stood in the bakery to pick up our sandwiches. Ironically, one minute later a group of French people came in, who thought they could push ahead because they had to catch a bus to Machu Picchu after all. Haha. Not us. We get up at this godless hour just to pick up sandwiches, which we even pre-ordered unlike them. As it turned out, apparently everyone in this town had to catch a bus to Machu Picchu, because when we arrived at the bus stop at 04:50, we had to join an endlessly long queue that stretched along the entire street, and this even though the first bus wouldn't leave until 05:30!
From 05:30 onwards, things got hectic, buses full of people left every 2 minutes. The ride up the mountain took a good 20 minutes. Upon arrival at the entrance, you could use the bathroom one last time, because there was none inside the site (what a joke). By the way, you are also not allowed to bring food or drinks (not even water) inside, but fortunately this is not really checked.

Access to Machu Picchu has been limited to 2500 people per day since 2017. That sounds like a lot (and it is), but during the high season it can happen that there are no more tickets available. The tickets are divided into 2 groups: morning from 06:00 - 12:00 and afternoon from 12:00 - 17:00. In addition, there are 400 tickets available daily for climbing the Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu Mountain. The Huayna Picchu is considered the sacred mountain of the Incas, and the absolute must-see of a visit, which is why everyone and their dog wants to go up there. Accordingly, depending on the season, you have to book the tickets 3-6 months in advance. Therefore, we had decided to buy tickets for Machu Picchu Mountain and tackle this (higher) mountain. Together with 200 others in the 07:00 group, we set off. As I said, this mountain is even higher than Huayna Picchu and the ascent was pure hell. You cover a distance of almost 700 meters in altitude over 2 kilometers of walking. Most of the time you climb high stone steps dating back to the Inca era. The Peruvians call it the "Stairway to Heaven" and that's exactly what it is. The closer you get to the goal, the steeper the path becomes, absolutely perfidious. On the last stretch, it goes steeply downward next to the narrow staircase, definitely not for people with a fear of heights. On the way, we spoke with two young Peruvians, or rather we gasped and cursed next to each other. One of them got scared along the way and turned back.
When we finally arrived at the top after what felt like an endless torture, the view was: awful. In fact, the site and the neighboring mountains were shrouded in thick fog and all you could see was a white wall. The first ones to arrive (so to speak, without a clear view) had already started their way back. This was mainly because they assumed that they would have to leave the site by 12:00 noon (as stated on the ticket) and of course also wanted to visit the citadel. We were told that with this ticket we could stay in the site until 3:00 p.m., but we had to leave the mountain by 12:00 noon. No one seems to understand it here. In any case, we decided to take the risk and, in the worst case, buy another ticket for the next day to visit the citadel. After all, we have plenty of time. But we certainly would not descend from this mountain without waiting for clear visibility as long as possible!

And indeed: about half an hour later, the sky suddenly cleared up. The view of Machu Picchu, Huayna Picchu, the surrounding mountains, and the deep valley was absolutely breathtaking, indescribable in words. Unfortunately, the beauty of the place does not come across in the photos at all as it actually was. In fact, I am really glad that we climbed this mountain because only from here can you see the view of the Inca city AND the Huayna Picchu behind it. Although I myself was not on Huayna Picchu, but have seen photos of Jörg's visit 6 years ago, I am absolutely convinced that the view from here is much more beautiful, regardless of whether it is considered the holy mountain of the Incas or not. So if you don't care about Inca shaman holy mountain hocus-pocus, but want to have the best possible view, you should definitely choose the Machu Picchu Mountain!
A victory cigarette, a sandwich, and hundreds of photos later, we set off back to the main site. When I was already eagerly looking forward to the descent during the ascent, I had definitely made a terrible mistake. The descent was by no means easier, but just as strenuous due to the incredibly high, slippery, and irregular steps that had to be climbed down. This time it mainly went into the knees. Besides, you had to concentrate like crazy because, as already mentioned, it sometimes went steeply down next to the steps, and you definitely don't want to sail down because of a moment of carelessness. In fact, there had already been a selfie death on the summit of Machu Picchu Mountain a few years ago, when someone fell to their death.
At some point, completely exhausted, we returned to the main site, and it turned out to be true what Jörg and I had already speculated: since the entrance to the mountain hiking trail is in the middle of the main site, no one checks the validity of the ticket when leaving. Although our ticket officially expired at 12:00 noon, we were able to spend the whole afternoon undisturbed in the site, taking a leisurely look at the citadel with all its sights (hut of the guardian of the sacred rock, Temple of the Sun, Holy Plaza, Temple of the Three Windows, Main Temple, Intihuatana, Temple of the Condor), chasing after the llamas, taking thousands more photos, and lying in the grass on the Inca terraces and sunning ourselves a bit.

When we had finally had enough, we set off on the long journey back to Aguas Calientes. Since we had decided to save money on the bus, we had another 8-kilometer hike ahead of us. And again it was mostly downhill, my knees and legs already hated me for what I was doing to them, every step was incredibly painful. And as if that weren't enough misery, it suddenly started pouring rain and it didn't stop until we arrived completely soaked in Aguas Calientes.
Unfortunately, we had left most of our luggage in Cusco. We hadn't experienced rain for weeks (in general, we had very little rain on the entire trip), so who would have expected that. Accordingly, we only had one pair of pants with us, which was now completely wet, and the hiking shoes, which were also completely wet. Joyful times. For this reason, and also because the next morning we could hardly move due to pain in our whole bodies, we decided to postpone our onward journey by one day and wait in Aguas Calientes for another day. In the meantime, we could at least have the wet clothes washed and dried. And although good old Jörg held the shoes over our small electric stove for hours with angelic patience, unfortunately they still didn't dry completely.

In Aguas Calientes, there is not much to do besides Machu Picchu. It is an absolute tourist trap, with bad (and expensive) hotels, even worse (and more expensive) restaurants, generally lousy service, and a ton of souvenir junk. The town is named after the thermal baths there. However, we had seen quite unappetizing pictures on the internet and read rather bad travel reports, which is why we decided not to visit them. Therefore, we used the day to chill out at the hotel, work on the blog, and, as I said, dry the shoes.

The next day, we set off for Santa Teresa early in the morning. On the way, we made a stop at the Machu Picchu Museum. The museum was very informative and interestingly designed. There were mainly ceramic pieces on display that had been found at the site. There were also many pieces of information about the engineering skills of the Incas and their city planning. For example, it was illustrated how the terraces were built, and that is really impressively, especially considering how many there are and how steep the terrain is. In addition, the network of paths, which connects the Inca city with the surrounding regions, was displayed. Not many riches were recovered from Machu Picchu. The only piece made of gold was found buried in one of the terraces.

After the visit to the museum, we leisurely walked along the train tracks for about 3 hours to Santa Teresa. We were very surprised to see how many people were on this route, but given the exorbitant prices for train journeys, this is actually not surprising. There is not much train traffic on this route, and the trains can be heard from a distance, so it is also not dangerous. It was actually a rather idyllic path through the forest between the high mountains, from which you could occasionally catch a glimpse of the Machu Picchu Citadel. Resourceful people had also smelled an opportunity and set up small stands along the way selling snacks, fruits, and drinks. And since we weren't in a rush, we could take it easy despite still excruciating pain in our whole bodies (which would accompany us for several more days). The path ended at the hydroelectric plant outside of Santa Teresa. Taxis were already waiting there for the hikers to take them to Santa Teresa.
And so the journey through the Sacred Valley continues.....