Day 12 - Machu Picchu!!!

Machu Picchu
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This morning, I got up in Ollantaytambo at 3:45 in order to be able to catch the train to Machu Picchu pueblo. Ollantaytambo is the last town accessible by road before the Machu Picchu. After that, only two solutions: the Inca Trail, or the train. The first one has to be booked up to 9 months in advance so I went with the train. I had bought my tickets in advance because there too, you need to plan a minimum.

My ticket was for the 5:07 "BACKPACKER class" departure, US$70 return. The journey was really nice, with the Sun slowly rising although we could only guess it, the mountains were hiding it. We went up the valley for nearly 1h40 and then arrived to Machu Picchu pueblo, a very touristy, concrete town. Then I got my entry tickets for the Machu Picchu itself, for US$124 and then the bus to go up there and back for US$15. Pff, well the problem at the Machu Picchu is that they can't allow too many visitors at once. I think it's maximum 2000 a day. Considering the size of the site and the cost to maintain it, well, it's simple math: the bill is shared among fewer people. This explains the high costs of the visit.. But it's totally worth it.

Machu Picchu
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I met a solo traveller in the bus up there, with whom I ended up visiting the site the entire day. To be fair, it's a bit more fun then alone. Arriving onsite, the first thing I thought was that it was much bigger than expected. And the setting, you can't imagine how beautiful it is. It's up on a mountain where the river makes a U-turn down in the valley, and encircled by other very green peaks. You realise quickly that you're just at the border of what becomes the Amazon Forest. The ruins themselves are really breathtaking, and still in good shape although deteriorating due to us, tourists.

Machu Picchu
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The Machu Picchu was an agriculture site, important for the capital of the Empire, Cusco. You have a huge complex of Indian terraces all around on the hills' slopes, which was a godsend for me as there is as a result almost always a terrace next to every path instead of a cliff. The site bears also several marks of stones probably used for astronomy, in order to determine the best times of the year to sow crops, harvest, etc.

I don't want to say too much more really, I think that looking at the pictures is more than enough to understand.