/The hangover after the match gave us clarity and resolve to continue our journey so we booked the cheapest trip to Machu Picchu provided through the hostel’s agency. 100 dollars for a whirlwind 2-day expedition to one of the wonders of the world (What a deal!).
Booking things on the cheap means certain comforts and guarantees will be forfeited, this company understood this universal rule. The next morning it began with banging on the metal door to the dorm room, 25-minute warning, A mad scramble to prepare our bags. The driver was perturbed, and the hostel staff concerned by the amount of baggage we were bringing with us, everyone else left some luggage behind at their respective lodgings but we decided not to return Cusco, we would be getting dropped off in Urubamba, the largest town in the Sacred Valley. We piled into the humid passenger van and set off.
View from the road
The drive took 6 hours along twisting mountain roads with spectacular views of steep hills dotted with terraces, low clouds and small farm houses painted with political slogans for some election that we were blissfully unaware of. We stopped at a small town for a rushed lunch that was included in our trip fee, beer sold separately. Our after-meal cigarettes cut short by the driver yelling “vamos!” and we were whisked away over narrow dirt roads that cling to the mountain wall.
Arriving at the Train station/ walk to Agua Calientes
By midafternoon we arrived at train station, the final leg of our journey to Agua Calientes where we would be spending the night before exploring Machu Picchu the next day. Once again, the scenery had changed, the tracks leaving the station ran parallel to the rivers and we were situated in a valley with green hills looming above, here the elevation was lower, the air humid and warm.
After some confusion getting through the throngs of tourists and guides, we found instruction on the path to follow and we were off. Stephanie, Gino and I would be walked the tracks, about 4 miles to Aguas Calientes. Michael over burdened with luggage took the comfortable and well windowed passenger train, about a 30-dollar expense.
Beginning of the walk
Crucial Selfie
We tend to immediately remember the good things about an experience before you remember the bad. Beginning with the good, the walk was beautiful, butterfly’s flitted about as we walked, each turn of the tracks provided a spectacular view and the flora grows thick and lush. We passed local adults and school children who waved as we passed. The locals unafraid of walking on the train tracks while the tourists followed the safety signs opting to walk through the puddles and streams. The unpleasantness of the walk, now foggy in my mind, was embodied by the fatigue in our shoulders and legs from the heavy packs and the proliferation of nagging mosquitoes that left me bleeding and welted.
The train
The river
Eventually the shadows began to grow long, and the air was beginning to cool, worry crept into my skull, my natural anxiety of walking in strange jungles at night. Finally, the town of Agua Calientes was presented to us, the town built along the river and up onto the steep hills, the entrance to Machu Picchu. We entered the town sweaty and disheveled only to be met with steep inclined roads, confused tourists and aggressive restaurant “promoters”, another tourist trap.
Aguas Calientes FINALLY
Shot from the streets