Machu Picchu

It's been actually some time since I've written about a place in the world I visited and there's a good reason for it: I needed some time to prepare for an amazeballs trip. And I did it. As a sort of New years resolutions I decided I wanted to visit the World Wonders and I have the first one scratched out: Machu Picchu. There's only one word to decribe it: breathe-taking. However, there are tons of things any visitor should know about. There are tons of blogs and contradicting information on what, how and where to do everything in Machu Picchu, so I'll keep it simple: this is going to be the best guide for student backpackers like me.

As you might be aware, the closest you can get to Machu Picchu by airplane is in Cuzco, the biggest and nearest city in the area. The first thing to do is to get the all-pass ticket downtown, near the plaza for 130 soles, you'll need it often. Cuzco has 4 ruins to see - Puca Pucara, Qenko, and two other I can't remember who to spell-, they're all fairly close, not more than 20 minutes away the furthest. You can get there by bus or even walking, it depends on how much strenght you wish to save for later. Trust me, you're gonna need it. As you travel the city, you'll encounter extremely cheap places, markets where bargaining is a lifestyle and drinks more expensive than your hostel. Be careful, keep in mind 20 soles is almost expensive and learn to say "NO, GRACIAS" as soon as a local approaches you, they're like mosquitoes and you're the walking wallet they want to drain. The best thing you can do is to have a native speaker with you at all times, a Spanish-speaker "gringo" will do too. Cuzco should keep you interested for like 4 days, this is the place to buy all the souvenirs as there's a lot of offer and you can get a good bargain on an Alpaca sweater. 

You need a whole day to explore Pisaq. These ruins are in a further city, about an hour away from Cuzco, leave early, get in a mini van and it'll take you to the nearest town for like 15 soles. After checking the little town out, get on a taxi, to the highest point in the ruins and start exploring. It's 4000 meters high, so it's though you might think I'll be easy, it's not going to be. You'll feel immediately the lack of oxygen, so tons of water bottles will be very well appreciated. Go down on your own so you can explore all the ruins, there are about 5 or 6 main areas to be explored on your way down. Enjoy the tiring, yet beautiful walk down.

And now the tricky part begins. You may wonder how to heck to get to Machu Picchu town. Well the thing is that you could to straight to Aguas Calientes, but that's not really what you want to do. The ride is about 5 or 6 hours by bus. Halfway through to Machu Picchu we have Ollantaytambo, an extremely small town next to ruins that you cannot miss. So what you need to do is to go to Ollantaytambo by bus, visit the ruins, take your time and stay the night. Early in the morning -around 7 am-, take the train to Machu Picchu. Do not pay more than 110 USD round trip, everything is the same between the different foreign companies and there's not a point on spending more. 

Machu Picchu town, or Aguas Calientes, is twice as expensive as Cuzco so it'll take a while to get used to it. Still, go for the cheap menues and don't risk it by eating anything that might get you sick. As soon as you get to the town, head to the bus ticket office in case you wanna take the bus to Machu Picchu itself, it's the smartest thign to do. As a recommendation, I recommend EcoPackers as a place to stay in, it's a nice hostal and it's got hot water which I do find important. Take it easy and be ready to be up at 4am the morning you're going up Machu Picchu. If you're with several friends, get one of them to make the line for the bus. Buses don't leave till 5.30 am, but line starts forming up around 4.30. Everyone wants to make the most of their days in Machu Picchu and be the first in line at the entrance. I recommend you to buy the tickets with a LOT of anticipation on the government website, specially if you also want to do Wayna Picchu which has very limited tickets. As soon as you get into Machu Picchu, simply enjoy. It's beauty cannot be truly described until you're in it. It's going to be a long day, so have snacks and water. Lots, lots of water.





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