We leave early in the morning from the center of Cusco, even though the bus was late. The landscape is nice, but we soon turn in all directions. At
10am we make a short stop before continuing until 13:30 where we have
only 20min to eat because of the delay of the beginning. We arrive at the hydropower plant, the terminus.
From there we have to walk along the railway path to Aguas Calientes, also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo. The scenery is pretty, we're surrounded by high mountains and the vegetation is almost tropical. It's also very hot, much warmer than in Cusco. After 2 hours of walking we reach the village, consisting exclusively of hotels, restaurants and other tourist services. We're 20min away from our hotel.
The next morning we get up before dawn to have time to climb to Machu Picchu on foot. We put a little less than 1:30 to arrive at the entrance of the ruins. The path climbed steeply, mainly on stairs. While waiting for the guide we eat our breakfast to take away. Once our group formed and the guide arrived, we enter Machu Picchu.
The view is very beautiful, we arrive from above and have a bird's eye view of the ruins and terraces once cultivated. This village was abandoned before the arrival of the conquistadores who have never discovered this place. The ruins are in very good condition and well maintained. The village is teeming with people but we still manage to see everything we want. The guide is not excellent, but we still learn a lot. Once
the 2-hours tour is over, we head to Machu Picchu Mountain, the highest
of the two mountains surrounding the ruined village. This tour is optional, we go there without the rest of the group.
The hiking path climbs steeply too. After the first 20 minutes of hiking we leave the vegetation and start to have a beautiful view of the village. The
more we go up and the more the road stiffens, there are more and more
steps and we meet more and more tired people resting by the track. We arrive at the top after 1 hour of hiking. From above, Machu Picchu is very small but the rest of the valley is worth a look.
The descent takes a lot of time too, especially since we continue the descent of the mountain with the descent of Machu Picchu. Our legs are tired in the descent, it's been many hours we walk. Back in the center of Aguas Calientes, we find a restaurant for lunch, it's quite late. We rest the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, we go to the non-tourist part of the village to dinner.
The next day is rest all morning before taking the path along the train tracks to take the bus back. We are a little late, we have poorly evaluated the time it takes us to walk to the hydropower plant. The meeting point of the buses is a complete bazaar, each of the bus companies yells the names of the passengers. We end up leaving the factory at 15:30, one hour late.
