Machu Picchu
The legendary Inca citadel situated in the Peruvian Andes.
This post is a continuation from the Salkantay to Machu Picchu Trek post, click here to read it.
Machu Picchu – Day 5 of the Salkantay Trek
One of my greatest fears of an early start to the day is not waking up on time. Especially so after a few tiring days of trekking and celebrating the night before. With no one else in your room, there is no backup and from experience, hotel wake up calls are not reliable. As I bumbled down to the lobby and collected my uninspiring packed breakfast (the driest thing I’ve ever eaten), with it being far too early for the proper hotel breakfast. I met the other members of our group, all amazingly awake after only 2-3 hours of sleep. That’s dedication right there.
The double room hotel upgrade from twin-share was an extra US$35. Unlike the tent upgrade situation (separate US$35 for all 3 nights combined), I didn’t want to pay this being proper accommodation and all, but it wasn’t an option. I felt a bit cheated as tours would undoubtedly depart with uneven numbers creating a situation where 1 person would always get a room on their own. At some point, I looked up the price of the hotel (how could I not?). I found it was roughly US$95 per night which really made it about US$30 per hour for me. Fml 💸
It was about 4:15am and the bus queue to Machu Picchu had already started growing. Thankfully for us, it was almost right outside our hotel. Enterprising locals already had overpriced terrible scalding hot coffee for sale.Â
The completionist in me had planned to do the optional hike from Aguas Caliente to Machu Picchu, an estimate 1hr 30min hike. With Machu Picchu opening at 6 am, now would have been a good time to get started to arrive as soon as it opens. I scrapped that plan. I was exhausted and I had several painful blisters that I should have removed but didn’t. The return bus ticket from Aguas Caliente to Machu Picchu (US$19) was already included in our tour anyway.Â
Our guide, staying at cheap guide accommodation was supposed to meet us at our hotel. After we waited a few minutes we started queuing for the bus not wanting to lose our place. Unease started filling our group’s minds.
“Where is our guide?”
He was supposed to be here by now but wasn’t. He was out celebrating with us just hours earlier. No one in our group had his number. We didn’t need it, until now.Â
15 minutes passed by, nothing.
Unease turned into worry.
30 minutes passed by, still nothing.
Worry turned into panic.
Our guide had our tickets, not only for the bus but for Machu Picchu itself. We asked the hotel if they had information, to no avail. With no one with mobile internet, we had to keep running back to the hotel for wifi. Thankfully it was just down the street.
I checked the tour operator website. I called the number. As expected at this hour I didn’t get a response.Â
A separate emergency number was listed.
Relief.
I punched in the number.
With each ring, I waited with suspense.
Someone answered! Sounding like they had just woken up I blurted out our predicament.
They hung up.
Redials were not answered.
“Are you f**king kidding me!” I sighed with disbelief.
60 minutes had now passed by.Â
The first bus rolled up and the queue started moving. After the bus was filled another immediately rolled up.
Panic turned into despair.
We had reached the front of the queue where they were checking ID and tickets. We told them our story but they couldn’t help us, they told us to wait to the side and thankfully didn’t send us to the back of the queue that I could now not see the end of.
As bus after bus started filling and leaving for Machu Picchu we see a familiar face roll up.Â
It was him.
As some of us cheered with relief as if he was our saviour, he handed us our tickets and instructed us to board the bus.Â
“I’m really disappointed”, Cody remarked.
I thought to myself for a moment, then a switch flicked in my head. His response was the more appropriate response. Our group had planned the night before to arrive at the crack of dawn to beat the crowds. We all were partying that night and woke up in time, our guide did not. We were all paying a significant amount of money for this trek. They had dropped the ball.
As our bus took off we noticed our guide was not on the bus. “Really?” We sighed.
Picturing flashbacks of what happened only just moments ago we were not confident. While you are required to enter Machu Picchu with an official guide, my plan B already formulating in my head, with ticket now in hand, was to simply go straight through hidden in the masses.
Fortunately, he was on the next bus.Â
While this was a guided trek, it could still be effectively seen as a guided tour. And on a tour you expect a certain level of standards and deliverables increasing as a function of price with an on-time guide not being a huge ask. We didn’t need that stress.
Machu Picchu, finally.
So with all that now behind us, we moved on.
Before the gates in front of the toilets (paid) where the bus drops you off (or to the right of the top of the steps if you walked), there is a Machu Picchu passport stamp on a podium. Mines blurry 😔.
In we went.Â
While I had seen the typical photos, nothing really can compare to experiencing a place like this in person, first hand.
We walk around to a few points of interest and our guide talks about the history, the significance of certain places, and the usual stuff you hear on a guided tour. Once done it is the official end of the tour. The guide would head back down and make his way home but we were all free to look around or complete our optional hikes if we had booked them.
If you do the optional hike make sure you have your own documents (passport and ticket) with you and not someone else. At one point documents were with different group members and with the one-way nature of the path (rangers are positioned all over), people were unable to contact family members further back to get their documents without a bit of a mess.
Machu Picchu Mountain
Machu Picchu Mountain (Montaña Machu Picchu) is an optional hike with limited tickets that must be booked in advance (US$25). The trailhead is near the start, behind the postcard photo location. Due to the one-way path visitors must take in Machu Picchu, after entering Machu Picchu you can either do it near the start, or at the end. If at the end, there is a path that will allow Machu Picchu Mountain ticket holders to go back to the start. This effectively allows you to walk around Machu Picchu twice whereas normal ticket holders must head to the exit when they reach the end. Of course, all this has to work in conjunction with your Machu Picchu Mountain entrance time and Machu Picchu arrival time. If you don’t plan to walk around twice or don’t have the optional Machu Picchu Mountain hike ticket, you definitely want to take all the photos you want to as you come across each location otherwise you will not get a second chance.
After signing the logbook at the warden’s hut at the start (which you sign again on completion), the trail begins with a moderate incline then transitions to very steep for the second half of the trail. There are multiple viewpoints on the way up of the 1hr 30min hike for those that don’t want to (or simply can’t) complete the entire hike.Â
This hike is not for the faint-hearted, it’s rated as harder than the Huayna Picchu hike, parts of the trail are narrow and there are sheer drop-offs.
For some reason, I thought it was a 30min hike, damn was I wrong. After about 30mins I asked a few people “How much longer?”
“About an hour” they would respond.
Thinking I was getting trolled, I would press on with the hopes of being near. Little did I know.
Upon reaching the top I nearly collapsed. A ton of blisters and being the 5th day of the Salkantay Trek, the Machu Picchu Mountain hike wasn’t easy.
Each step, not only was fear-inducing but was agonising.
But rewarded with 360-degree panoramic views, it was well worth the pain.
I had originally wanted to do the Huayna Picchu hike but it was sold out as this hike has an even more limited number of people per day allowed (booked out 4 months in advance). However, after completing the much harder and higher Machu Picchu Mountain trek I have no regrets.
Only 10 minutes after arriving at the top it started raining lightly. Not wanting to slip on the treacherous path and plummet to my untimely doom, not to mention taking out anyone else immediately below me in the process (or have someone fall on me), I proceeded to head down before it got worse.Â
After I completed the Machu Picchu mountain hike, it was time to head back down to Aguas Caliente. I had a 4.30pm train to catch.Â
I stopped by the postcard photo location for 1 last set of photos but that’s all I had time for. Not knowing how long the bus down would take, I semi-jogged the rest of the uni-directional circuit again only to be met with a colossal queue for the bus to go down. It was tempting to merge in with a larger group by standing near them as if I was part of their family or something, but polite (and sad) me made my way to the back of the queue. My time eventually came to board the bus but not before having to put up with ages of waiting around listening to touts trying to pawn off their last-minute Harem Bingham crap. If you don’t know who he is and you didn’t catch it during the tour, you will after waiting in this line.
In retrospect, I would have liked to have spent more time there. Chill out, take more photos, etc. The Macchu Picchu Mountain hike ate into a huge portion of the day and with a set time for the train back (tour provided at US$50), I would have to leave relatively early. On tours, in general, I find they are always quite rushed. If you’re not into hiking then you’ll have the extra 3hrs I spent hiking Macchu Picchu Mountain, looking around the citadel instead. I’m glad I took photos as he was guiding us since I didn’t have time on my second round.
If I could go back in time I would either stay in Aguas Caliente for 2 nights (the night before and night after visiting Macchu Picchu Citadel) – that way I could spend up until closing time on the mountain enjoying it more; or book my own transportation home later in the day. You’re meant to leave the citadel x hours after your entry time (depending on what you’re hiking if any) but there is no enforcement of this.Â
Looking at my train ticket with the exorbitant monopolistic price of US$90 written on it, I recalled paying US$50. I initially thought the tour operator acquired it at a discount but after thinking about it more it could be that US$40 was baked into the base fee regardless of whether you take it up or not… Wow, US$90 and it wouldn’t even go all the way back to Cusco, we would disembark at the closest stop hours away and take a minivan provided by the tour agency the rest of the way.
I slumped in my overpriced train seat.
As the breathtaking scenery whizzed by eventually disappearing into the darkness, I thought about my journey to get where I was – an arduous 5-day 75Km trek. Bolstered by the fact that the final destination of the trek is the legendary Inca citadel of Machu Picchu itself, without a shadow of a doubt, the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu is one truly unforgettable experience.