Machu Picchu

Getting to Machu Picchu is not as easy as you might think. Cetainly it is not cheap! Peru is milking its jewel of the crown.
Let's start with the basics: There are no roads to MP. The road ends in Ollantaytambo. There are only 2 ways to get to Machu Picchu: Via Inca Trail or via Inca Rail.
The Inca Trail is a 4 days hike that covers roughly 40 kms.
There are obviously thousands of agencies that can organise the trecking for you.
The cost is normally around $400 and the key is to book early (at least 3 months in advance).
This is because there are only 500 places available per day and the demand is huge.
To check availability the best web site is:
http://www.machupicchu.gob.pe/

From our part we opted for Inca Rail.

We purchased our tickets on line on:
http://www.incarail.com/
The cost for a retun ticket is normally around $100 per person, but for that price at least you get a bag of nuts and a mate de coca.
The journey from Ollantaytambo to Agua Calientes lasts around 1hr and 40 minutes.
Once you get there you also need to catch a bus. The bus station is only 500 meters from the train
station; all you need to do is to cross an endless market full of stalls selling all sorts of souvenirs.

The bus takes you up to the ruins from 2000M up to 2400 M.
The journey, which lasts around 30 minutes is quite spectacular and gives enough time for the excitement to kick in.
The cost of this ticket is another $15 per person.

At last you get to the entrance where you join the queue with hundreds of people coming from all around the world.
Surely you must have bought your ticket in advance. (remember, there are only 2500 tickets available per day).
Once again you can do that on the government site. (above)
The cost depends on whether you want to see the ruins or whether you want to climb one of the sorrounding mountains.
The cost of the basic ticket is around $50.

And at last after 3 hrs journey, 1 hr queue, $170 lighter you are now ready to enjoy one of the 7 wonders of the world (the new ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonders_of_the_World).

The famous view hits you pretty much straight away.

The tour of the ruins lasts around 2 hrs, however after 1 month in Peru the guides failed to impress us, mainly because we have heard their stories about Inca's method of construction, theology, history etc over and over in previous visits.

I have to say we found quite disappointing that the site did not have any written explainations whathsoever: fair enough also the guides need to earn some money, however it would be nice to have few lines giving you the basics of what you are looking at.

There is no doubt that what makes the difference here is the location, the setting, not the ruins.

To enjoy the view from distance we took a 1 hr walk to Intipunku, the only free hike in the whole site.

Intipunku is also the point of arrival of the Inka Trail.

After 4 days of trecking this is how the brave ones are greeted. (well, not by us, but by the view...)

Once back on site we spent our last hr exploring the areas where tourists normally don't go.

We even made some encounters of the third type......

This Llama whispered in my ear that the MP was discovered by Hiram Bingham exactly 100 years ago.

Apparently Hiram took away with himself plenty of archeological objects which the Peruvian government is still trying to recover; a small price to pay, I would say, considering what the discovery of Machu Picchu did for Peru'.