Day at Machu Picchu

Despite my tummy condition, I had an uninterrupted night sleep which gave me good confidence for the day at Machu Picchu. We left the hotel around 0515 amidst sound of explosions (they were fireworks we were told). It was a 20 min walk to the railway station where we waited briefly before boarding Peru Rail’s 0610 train for Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes).

Drinks and a pastry was served during the 1h45 journey. The scenery got lusher as we descended and there was evidence of drizzle then some rain. The river was rather scungy and frothy in parts.

We disembarked and walked through a maze of stalls which were still largely closed before getting to an open area where we could orientate based on the river and bridge. We bought ourselves a disposable raincoat each and found the bus to Machu Picchu. What surprised us was the steep cost of USD24 pp for the 20 min ride up and back down. There was no choice as we had been told it was a steep and unrewarding climb (walking alongside the many shuttles going up and down).

There was a small queue for the scanning-in. We donned our raincoats and latched on to a guide with several guests already, paying him 50 soles for both of us.

We were guided around from 0830 till around 1030 with reasonably good explanations about the history, discovery, construction and life at Machu Picchu.

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The drizzly misty weather had cleared by the time we had finished with the guide. We exited for a snack and rest. The food there was very expensive but top-notch quality. With my dodgy tummy, nothing appealed to me.

We re-entered (two re-entries permitted) for over an hour, climbing up to the guardhouse for a good view of the area and then descended for a further walk. In my condition today, I wasn’t keen on the Sun Gate or Wayna Picchu (the latter needed a separate ticket anyway). It was fortunate I hadn’t committed to anything more arduous in advance.

We exited once again around 1230 and took the bus down to the station. We managed to change our ticket to an earlier train for USD1 per person. That departed around 1340, which was 2+ hours earlier than our original booking. Incidentally, it was a Vistadome train which offered slightly better views and marginally better snacks.

We made it back to the lovely Kamma guesthouse before 1600 and my brain and tummy decided that it could let loose once again. I was lucky to have been able to contain myself at Machu Picchu as there were no toilets inside the large historic area; only outside the turnstiles.

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I opted for the same poor-quality wonton soup as last night. It was what my body wanted and could handle. The taste of MSG was so comforting. We had ginger-lemon hot drink in the square afterwards while waiting for the night’s fiesta activity to commence. We gave up but ran into the incoming parade just before we turned into our alleyway.

It was a very colourful, noisy, cheerful, beer-fuelled but still religious celebration with at least one priest in attendance. Trumpets blared, cymbals clashed and fire crackers were set off.  People danced happily in their colourful costumes, sometimes with beer bottles in hand.  Beautiful embroidered banners were paraded through along with a group of women carrying a big floral float.