Machu Picchu - just a million pictures

I am going to skip Aguas Calientes and add that to my next post on the Sacred Valley.  This post is dedicated to our day at Machu Picchu.  I suspect it is mostly going to be pictures.  

We bought entrance tickets for 6am.  The bus to the entrance gate is 30 minutes and we had heard that there may be a bit of a line up for the bus.   So we got up at 4:30am (ouch) and were in line for the bus by 5:15.  It was still dark out. 

The ride up to the mountain was stunnng.  It is basically just a zigzag road so view, then no view, view, then no view.  I tried to take some pictures but I'm sure they are awful.

We got to the gate around 5:50 so we had to wait a bit.  We were fairly close to the front.  We took a picture of this map because we didn't bring a map.  In fact, we had done no research on best routes, best places to see etc.  As per usual, I have almost no information on Machu Picchu itself.  Other than the going theory is that it was the summer retreat for the Inca royalty.  

Of course, we never looked at it again

The entrance gate

We scurried up the stairs behind a bunch of people.  But they were all heading for the main lookout.  Since we didn't know where that was, or that it existed, we tucked in behind the caretakers hut and got an incredible view before anyone had reached the ruins.  As you can imagine, it takes your breath away.  We were alone for a few minutes with this view!

Ta Da!

Then our secret hidey spot got found by a group so we continued up the path to the lookout.

No secret hidey spot here.

After we miradored for a bit, we headed to Machu Picchu mountain path.  For some insane reason, we thought we should not only do Machu Picchu, but also climb a mountain!  We wandered around a bit until the mountain gate opened.  We were on the other side of the park with very few people.  The view of the mountains was incredible.

Finally, it was 7am and we were allowed onto the mountain trail.  We were instantly in jungle. The sign said that the trail was over 2000 steps.  Inca steps! Which means stone, uneven, and slippery because it started to rain as soon as we started up.

Jungle

Ya, these stairs.  This was where I said, nope.
We were on the mountain trail for less than an hour

No.

Back to the main park area.

The classic through the window shot

This rock is important, I don't know why

The Inca city and Huayna Picchu behind

Urubamba River way, way below in the valley

Caretaker's hut and lookout from below

Welcome to Huayna Picchu

Yikes, come early!  And this is low season

Ooh, the window shot times two!

Just a giant rock in a wall

Temple of the three windows.  Important.

Yay!!  We saw a mountain bunny

this is supposed to look like a condor. I could not get a decent shot
for all the tourists

I see you.

And further evidence that we were there

And that was that. We spent about 6 hours there and then headed back to Aguas Calientes.

Back on track

I have been dither-dathering about buying our train tickets from Cuzco to Aguascalientes.  There are so many variables!  Railway: Peru Rail or Inca Rail.  Departure point: Cuscso, Ollantaytambo, Urubamba.  Class: Expedition, Vistadome, Voyager, Hiram Bingham.  Departure times: super early, moderately early, kind of early, afternoon, later afternoon, too late, you get the drift.

Ahh, I couldn't decide.  I kept looking at options and then getting distracted by work or homework or social life or The White Queen TV show marathon.  Val was no help.  She just said she trusted me and to buy whatever I thought best.  Hrmmph.

I even used my research as homework but creating a Machu Picchu Pecha Kutcha video.  You can watch it if you have 6:41 minutes to kill.  Don't judge, I got an A on it.

I kept not buying the tickets and not buying the tickets.   And then today, Black Friday deal day, I thought 'hey, I wonder if Peru railroads have sales on Black Friday'?  Guess what, they do!

So, I just bit the bullet, picked Peru Rail and hedged my bets on stations and classes.  We leave Cuzco in the not-too late morning (7:50am which is way better than 5:20am).  The train from Cuzco to Ollantaytambo doesn't run in rainy season so we bus it to Ollantaytambo.  We board the train at 10:30 or so and hit Aguascalientes around noon.  For this one, I bought the cheap tickets, Explorer class.  $38 US

Peru Rail Expedition Class

For our return tickets, we leave Aguascalientes at 10:30am or so.  I sprang for the Vistadome, the next class up with bigger windows. $54 US.  We get off in Ollantaytambo which seems like a nice little town and then we have to figure out how to get back to Cuzco.  I'm sure there are buses.  Or not, whatever, I can only do some much deciding in one day.

Peru Rail Vistadome 

We saved a bunch of money (around 40%) because I couldn't commit for weeks and then boom, it is time.   I had like five minutes before my next appointment so I didn't have time to think about it. This might be why my name is Joanne Cumberland Cumberland on my ticket.  Anyway, it is done.

We have assigned seats.  I tried to find some info on what side of the train they are on or even if they are window seats (on Expedition) but there doesn't seem to be consensus on seating plans.  Apparently, every train has a different configuration so it is a crap shoot.  Oh well, I don't mind leaning over a stranger to take a picture/spot a bird/rest my arm on their head.  I think Vistadome is all windows.  You know you are going to hear all about it eventually.

Next task, plane tickets from Cuzco to Lima.  I need another few days recovery time before I tackle that one.

Here's sa pretty picture of Peru Rail