One of the things we most dreaded and most looked forward to was Machu Picchu. We dreaded it because it is has turned into an overpriced tourist black hole. We looked forward to it because, hell, it is Machu Picchu! Isn’t this place on most peoples bucket list? It was on ours. And we drove to it! This is the biggest tourist destination in South America for a reason (we hope), it was a place we felt we had to see.
This picture is on every postcard and travel magazine for a reason. It is spectacular!
There are many ways to get to Machu Picchu, and most of them are ridiculously expensive (I am comparing this to the rest of Peru outside the Sacred Valley). The thing is, there are no roads that go all the way to Machu Picchu. You have to take a train in or hike in on the Inca trail or the “other Inca trails” which still require guides and tours, (both options are not cheap, the train is about $150 US a person roundtrip).
We had planned to drive to the end of the road and then hike the three hours to Aguas Calientes, the town that is the overnight stay closest to the ruins. This is what most overlanders do, and is the most economical way to see the ruins. After the Galapagos, our budget needed a bit of downsizing, so we were all in for doing this on the cheap.
The drive to Machu Picchu was spectacular. Sam and I took a small dirt road from Cusco that wound through valleys cut by rivers and through some fun single track road where not a bus full of tourists was to be found. In fact, we were the only ones on this road since it was under construction (oops…). Our little side road connected with the main road and we started passing Inca ruins, deep green valleys and snow capped peaks. It was an awesome drive.
About two hours into our dive we passed two people on motorcycles. They waved frantically at us and we realized it was our Swiss friends Karin and Marcus (who we had not seen since Ecuador). We tried to pull over and chat with them, but the road was too narrow and full of traffic so we decided to keep driving on and catch up with them later.
The one odd thing was they were going the wrong direction…..We had heard they were heading to Machu Picchu also through the overlander grapevine, but as they passed us going the wrong way we did not give it much thought. We assumed they were on their way back.
We drove for another hour and a half and started seeing a strange site. Cars. Lines of cars for over a mile. What the hell? We stopped the XP and Sam got out to see what was going on. He was gone for a long time and when he got back his face was a bit grim. He told me there was a huge landslide blocking the road. HUGE. He said he was certain it would take days to dig out. We debated popping our top and waiting (did not sound fun since it was near freezing and had started raining) or heading back to Ollantaytambo to destroy our budget and catch a late night train to Aguas Calients.
The thing is, the weather had been hit or miss the last few weeks, it was rainy season in Peru. Monday (the next day) was supposed to be the only rain free day of the entire week. We were kind of on a mission to get to Machu Picchu before the rain storms hit.
We drove back the hour and a half to Ollantaytambo and purchased our tickets (which cost almost $300 roundtrip for a lousy 2 hour train ride!!!!!!) The train was huge and we had assigned seating, as we got on the late night train we saw the people in the seat in front of us were our friends Karin and Marcus! WTF!!!!! What are the chances? We were super excited to see them and they told us that they were frantically waving at us to warn us about the landslide. Oops. They even turned around and chased us for a few kilometers but could not catch up with the traffic. We did not even see them….
Oh, well, the three hour drive roundtrip was pretty at least….We arrived in Aguas Calientes at almost midnight and found a super cheap hotel (so cheap you had to pay extra for toilet paper and bath towels!!!). We had originally planned to try to see the sunrise over Machu Picchu and wake up at 4am, but now we just wanted to sleep in and get there when we were rested.
The next morning around nine AM we woke to a perfect sunny day and we bought our overpriced entrance tickets (around $38 each) and then bought the $10 each bus tickets each way (so $40 round trip to ruins).
As we were sulking about the cost of everything on our way to the buses we looked up to see our favorite road friends Toby and Chloe!!! I literally screamed HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE ???? I jumped around with joy like a crazy person in the middle of town, so happy to see them. We did not know they were going to be here, and we had not seen them since early Ecuador.
I decided that the universe had put us together to experience this day with two of our favorite people. They got ahead of us when we went to the Galapagos and we missed them constantly and were sure we would never see them again. We were all super excited to be here together and we made plans to meet up in the ruins at 1 PM (they have a dog, so they had to go later than us so Tia was not left alone all day).
Our $20 US a night hotel room looked out onto the square that had this awful sign and statue and we watched people pose in front of it over and over. So of course we needed to do it too.
The wait for the buses is so long. We heard it is even longer if you try to get there when the ruins open. People start lining up at 4:30 am.
The thing about Machu Picchu is that even though it is crazy expensive, full of gringos and impossible to get to, once we walked off the overpriced bus, our first view of the site was so spectacular, that all of that fell away and we knew why so many people come here. Sam and I looked at each other, smiled, laughed, hugged and both immediately agreed, it was just as good as we had hoped. To be honest, it was actually even more spectacular than I had imagined.
We walked in and this was literally the first picture Sam snapped. Imagine this being your first view of the ruins. WOW.
And then you have to take a picture with a llama in it.
The morning at the site is very busy with tourists arriving in large groups so we decided to take the long hike up to the sun gate and wait there until lunch. The walk up was hard enough that not many people go up, and the views from the top down onto Machu Picchu were worth every uphill, sweaty minute.
It was much hotter here then I thought it would be. I had really wished I was wearing shorts.
When you get to the top you can see the crazy road the buses took up and all the Inca agricultural terraces. You can also walk up to the ruins from town. We would have been so tired, there is no way we would have survived a day of hiking all over the ruins. $10 bus was looking better and better.
We stayed up here for almost two hours, just enjoying the solitude and the view.
Sam sitting on the edge of a very steep ledge. It felt like the view was a green screen.
At the bottom of the sun gate trail we literally bumped into Toby and Chloe two hours before our meet up time. I might have screamed in happiness again….We were destined to spend this day with them. We all went over to a nice place in the shade and pulled our sandwiches out and caught up on a few months of travel tales with an insanely epic view.
So many stories to swap.
While we were sitting in the shade, Sam decided we needed to do some Kung Fu pictures.
So this happened! Thanks Toby for taking the pictures. These were so fun, I have not laughed that hard for a long time.
After a very long lunch we decided to hike to the Inca Bridge together. The hike is easy and the views of the valleys were pretty spectacular.
Chloe in pink doing a hiking jazz hands pose for Sam.
Toby walking towards the bridge, it starts getting a bit narrow around this area.
That was the scariest bridge I have ever seen. You can’t walk across it (like anyone would!) so you can just marvel at the Incas and their trail carved into the mountain and wonder how anyone had the balls to walk across that thing!
The river in the background is what you hike up if you can make it to the end of the road. Toby and Chloe were trapped on this side of the landslide, we were not sure how many days it would take for them to be able to drive back.
Finally, at about 3:30, we finally head down into the ruins that had been almost emptied of tourists. Also, at this hour the lighting was getting perfect. We underestimated the size of the ruins and were a bit amazed and overwhelmed at how much there was to see once you got inside. They were very impressive and extensive.
Before we head down we take the customary group photo and watched a couple get engaged.
Then Toby took a rare picture of me and Sam together. All these pictures were taken at the Caretaker’s hut near the entrance.
Finally, we enter through the gates into the main city. Toby took this of us, he loved playing around with Sam’s fancy camera.
The common area of the city. The green grass was just glowing in the late afternoon sun.
Apparently this is the face I make when a baby llama runs by me! I never got tired of those cute animals.
I had a guide book so I was the tour guide for the day. Look at Chloe’s face, priceless. She looks bored shitless lol. No end of tour tips for me. =)
My guided tour around the ruins was sporadic at best. We did not cover them in the most efficient manner, but extra exercise is not a bad idea when you know there will be beer and ice cream in your future right?
The architecture in the ruins was spectacular. These walls have survived earthquakes, weather, Spanish invasions, and without mortar they are still all standing.
Chloe and I doing the Inca workout. So many stairs……We were all super tired by the end of the day.
We had so much to catch up on, we could not stop chatting and marveling at the site.
And we chatted some more…..And then marveled some more.
And then with no rain, a rainbow appeared over the mountains.
We were so tired after all the stairs and walking. We were so ready for a hot shower and a beer when we got back to town.
As the sun goes down the city slowly gets engulfed in shadows.
The last buses were leaving so we had to force ourselves to leave the ruins.
Me and Toby at the exit, taking one last look out over the magical place.
This experience was one of our favorites of the trip. The entire day was perfect, and a large part of that was because of the great energy we always get from Toby and Chloe. We are a fierce-some foursome. We all laughed way too much, but we also were all a bit overwhelmed and grateful for this trip and this experience. A lot of people visit Machu Picchu every year, but very few drive to it from California and get to experience it with great friends.
Oh, and as we were leaving Agua Calients the next morning the skies we a horrible overcast grey and it started to rain. We did get the last sunny day for a while. And Toby and Chloe eventually got past the landslide blocking the road and we road back on our overpriced touristy train.
Epiloge
The crazy thing is, I am writing this in Patagonia, and we have not seen Toby and Chloe since this day, and are not sure if we will see them again on this trip. We wanted to spend the majority of our final months of the trip in Patagonia, so we passed them in Peru and have been ahead ever since. This makes us both super sad, but also so thankful the universe put us together for this day. We might not see them again in South America, but we will always have Machu Picchu.