The saga of trying to go to Machu Picchu was definitely interesting. It took weeks to book the tickets. The government website is very finicky, confusing, and you can only use a "verified by Visa" card. Along with trying Jamie's 3 different Visas, mine, and my colleague Ryan's, we were out of luck. Once your card is rejected, you couldn't use it again. Apparently there is a scalping problem so there's a lot of security. Machu Picchu only entrance tickets are 128 soles (around $46). But travel agencies will charge you about $20-30 tickets extra each to book it locally, because it's so difficult to book online and because there are only 2,500 available per day. Jamie and I were trying to save the money, but didn't want to be stuck.
Ultimately, Cusco Transport saved the day and purchased them on our behalf without a cash advance from us! So trusting and they only charged a fee of $5 per ticket. For the win!
We woke up today at 4:30 am for our 5 am breakfast and so we can try to grab an early bus, with the first one leaving around 5:30 am. We left Gringo Bill's around 5:15 am and we split up so Mary Ann and I stood on the bus line and Caitlin and Jamie went to purchase the round-trip bus tickets which were $18.50 each. The buses and the line moved quickly and we were up on the switchback roads in no time. Jamie handled the experience well even though switchback roads are not her fave.
We arrived at the entrance about 6 am and immediately went to the iconic spot to take photos and climbed up to the funerary area where we had gorgeous views. The amount of stones and buildings are truly incredible. Some of the temple stones are joined so perfectly, you can't put a piece of a paper in between. Don't know how they did it so many years ago! My guidebook said that Machu Picchu was built in the mid-1400s and it appears it was a ceremonial and agricultural center. The Incas revered nature and Machu Picchu represents one of the world's greatest examples of landscape art.
It was a bit cloudy in the beginning, but it cleared up pretty quickly. We then headed on a 30 minute walk to the Inca Bridge. This was definitely a B-list attraction, but interesting nonetheless and we had plenty of time.
At this point it was around 8 am, and it was already getting hot and due to the high chance of rain, we had umbrellas and raincoats, so we decided to leave to run to the loo as Mary Ann would call it and to check items at the baggage storage. The Andean sun at these altitudes is deceivingly strong and we wanted to lighten our load before our next hike up to Wayna Picchu or Huayna Picchu, spelled both ways. The peak is at 2,693 meters or 8,835 feet. Machu Picchu itself is at 2,400 meters or 7,872 feet. Here's a picture of the peak as pointed to by Jamie and then it's the tall one behind us and to the right:
This extra peak only allows 400 visitors per day - 200 at 7 am and 200 at 10 am. Wayna Picchu tickets are more expensive at 152 soles ($54). We hiked up, if you can call it that. At times, we felt like we were rock climbing or rappelling (there were rope cords at certain points) due to the steepness factor and we went to the very top - which included practically crawling through a cavern. Here's a picture close to the top:
On our way to the top, Jamie and Mary Ann ran into some Bloomberg colleagues and I met some Koreans who were living in São Paulo where I went in May. Small world!
After 2 hours round-trip, we made it to the bottom. Thank goodness Jamie and I were pretty much over our altitude sickness and frankly, I felt pretty good. In hiking, just gotta put one foot in front of the other and a journey of a 1,000 miles begins with 1 step! All kidding aside, I felt a little like the Energizer Bunny.
Afterwards, we visited the lower areas where we saw more temples, buildings, and terraces. After the hike and walk through, it was about 2 pm and we headed to the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge which has a buffet lunch for $40 each. We sprung for the option including Cusqueña beer for $43. We all had multiple plates and enjoyed sitting down. Finally, we boarded a bus and headed back to Gringo Bill's to pick up our stuff and wash up. We had to catch a 4:43 pm train back to Poroy which is just outside of Cusco. It took about 3.5 hours to get back. Jose Carlos, our trusty driver from Cusco Transport picked us up and we drove about 25 minutes back to Palacio del Inka where we got 2 rooms - South American hotels are pretty particular about only allowing 2 people per room even though you can easily fit 4. Although we squeezed the first night, we didn't want to bend the rules too much. Both rooms got upgraded to suites - for the win!
Due to the time, we dropped off our stuff and went directly to Sipan, a popular Chifa restaurant. Chifa is Peruvian Chinese food and we were told we had to try it. We got a bunch of dishes and some soups. By the end of the dinner, we were fading fast as we had started this epic day at 4:30 am!
After dinner, we headed back to our hotel to rest up for some more sight-seeing in Cusco tomorrow!
Cyn, I'm getting vertigo just from looking at your pictures!
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