Perú: The Magic of Machu Picchu
Known as the Pueblo of Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes is the closest town to the ancient site. The town is located on a hillside with a bifurcated river and train running through it. From Cusco, it took a 3-hour train ride over valleys, mountains, and rivers to arrive at our final destination. On the Inca Rail line, we met another California couple who made great conversation buddies and were served snacks, including Inca tea. The tea included coca leaves, which is the main ingredient in cocaine, and one of the most novel things to try in Perú. To top it off, the views from the train were incredibly beautiful throughout the journey.
The town of Aguas Calientes literally translates to “hot waters,” and thus is named after the hot springs found there. You can pay to bathe in them, but that wasn’t quite our cup of tea given the chilly weather and intermittent showers. Instead, we opted to walk through the town and the stalls selling souvenirs and handcrafts. It was a short walk because the town is quite small — yet it was rarely quiet. The river had a very strong current, which sounds like a waterfall and provided the background noise outside our hotel window to counter the trains arriving every hour of the morning.
I found an Incan warrior pointing the way to Machu Picchu along with beautiful stone sculptures throughout the town.
Not too far across the train tracks, we also found a quaint coffeehouse where I tried a mochaccino a la peruano — whole milk and Quillabamba coffee from Cusco. The coffee was indescribably good. While we relaxed to the sounds of the river sipping on our drinks, some makeshift musicians set up in front of our cafe. Playing different types of flutes, a ukulele, and an acoustic guitar. They sounded and looked like a professional troupe of traveling musicians. We couldn’t have asked for anything more than great Peruvian music whilst writing in a small cafe next to the flowing river and beautiful mountains in this tiny town of Aguas Calientes.
Those who aren’t up for the 2.5-hour hike uphill from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu, take the bus up the mountainside. The windy narrow mountain road with countless switchbacks may test your stomach, but luckily it’s only a 25-minute ride up. Make sure you pre-register to visit Machu Picchu in advance before you make your way up the Andes mountains. Our fellow Californian couple on the train hadn’t pre-registered, so we don’t know if they were able to get into the site that day. Here’s a trusty resource to help you out with the visit.
Once you pass through the entry point of this UNESCO World Heritage Site, you’re led up a maze of pathways taking you straight to the 15th-century Incan citadel. Abandoned in the very same century, no Spanish soldier has ever set foot on Machu Picchu — at least a far as records can tell. It remained undiscovered to the West until a Yale archeologist named Hiram Bingham visited the area and asked the local townspeople about it. Popularized by Bingham in the early 1900’s, there has been a resurgence of public interest in discovering and preserving the site. This started a wave of rebuilding the ruins for tourism. Now the ancient site has thatched-roof houses, roaming llamas, and hiking trails all around it — which makes it look a lot like its early beginnings.
We climbed a slew of steps to find some great vantage points of the ruins. Unfortunately, with Ash being sick, we had to take it easy and cut our visit short. So we missed some of the best hikes in the area. However, I did manage to pull off a hiking feat by myself up to the Puerta del Sol. Butterflies led the way uphill as I carefully climbed the uneven stone pathway. After a 45-minute walk up, I made it up to the gate. I did it — cue the Dora The Explorer dance! With the high altitude and wholly unprepared (lacking bottled water and a jacket for the intermittent showers), I was about to turn back many times. Luckily, I was able to challenge myself just enough to make it all the way there and back unscathed. The view from the top was well worth it!
Due to their distance and our delayed acclimatization efforts, we had to skip some unique sites like: Moray (another site of ancient ruins) and the Maras Salt Mines, both of which are about 75 minutes away from Cusco. A few more missed day-trips with more ruins included Sacsayhuaman and Tambomachay. While Rainbow Mountain was slated to be a full-day excursion with only one hole-in-the-ground bathroom for the hundreds of tourists that visit it everyday. The time we spent in Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu was well worth the trip.
As we took the train back and drove down into the city center of Cusco, we followed the same path as the Spanish conquistadors along Avenida de la Cultura. As we descended into the city, the sea of lights reminded us that even though the Spanish had drastically altered the course of its history, the city, its people, and the unique culture of Cusco have an indomitable spirit.
