After taking in the scenery of the Salkantay Pass and meeting some friendly Brits, we had to move on with our journey to Machu Picchu.
The rest of the trek was fairly simple with easy to moderate hiking. You still have to cover a lot of ground but it was mostly flat and downhill. This leg of the journey was mostly enjoying the nature around you without taking breathers every 10 mins. You could converse with your hiking mates and really get to know them since you didn’t feel like death.
Once we got close to Aguas Calientes, we pretty much followed the train tracks which roamed around the mountains of Machu Picchu. I would have to say the scenery was fairly impressive with jagged green mountains surrounding you the whole way. Aguas Calientes was a chill touristic town with many good restaurants and budget hotels. It was a good town just to wander around while grabbing some food and beers at a number of the establishments.
The next day everyone woke up around 4am and walked to the bottom of the Machu Picchu. There was a line of about 200 people waiting for the entrance to open. You can take a bus up but that would be lame and they don’t start running till later. The walk up was brutal since you are walking up the entire mountain with many switchbacks. It is definitely worth the experience though. The reward at the end is viewing Machu Picchu at dawn with a fraction of the tourists.
There are plenty of places to stake out a good viewpoint while you walk around. The sun gate is one and the other is Huayna Picchu. You will need to book your Huayna Picchu ticket beforehand since only a certain amount of people can hike up it each day. The hike up actually was not too bad. I didn’t think I had enough left in my tank since it looked scary but the walk up to Machu Picchu in the morning was much worse.
