Finally we are on our way to the Sacred Valley and Machu Pichu—anticipated highlights of our trip. Our plan was that we would be picked up at our hotel in Cusco at 8:30 am to join a small group tour of a couple of archeological sites and then be dropped off in Urubamba for a 2-night stay. From there, we would move on to Aguas Calientes and Machu Pichu. These few days did not go as planned.
First, we got a late start. Our tour representative walked to our hotel in Cusco and then led us on foot to other tour participants’ hotels and finally to a gathering spot on the edge of town where we waited close to an hour for our transport. We thought we would be taken in a van. Instead, we found ourselves on a bus with 20 or more people—a number that would prove to be difficult for the guide to handle as the day progressed. Okay, so a late start and lots of people.
Once on the road, our first stop was Pisac, a town in the Sacred Valley on the Vilcanota River, to see Inca ruins, some of the most extensive and well-preserved ruins in Peru. They are spectacular.
Next, we had a delicious buffet lunch at a beautiful resort. Then we traveled on to Ollantaytambo, a cute town adjacent to another ruins. This site was the royal estate of an Incan emperor who conquered the region and built the town and a ceremonial center. It is one of the most popular starting points for those walking the Inca Trail. We climbed the stairs and explored the ruins at the top, out of breath and happy that we accomplished that much!
As we were leaving Ollantaytambo, our guide realized that she had lost track of 3 people. We waited on the bus about half an hour for them to appear. Evidently they left the tour on their own to get back to Cusco for an appointment at 7. Due to our late departure from Cusco, they could not make the appointment if they stayed with the tour. We too left the bus at Urubamba (with the guide’s knowledge) where a driver met us and took us to our hotel, the ARANWA.
The hotel was elegant—previously a hacienda, now a 5-star accommodation, with a pool, bicycles, a movie each night, lovely gardens and more. It was relatively warm here during the day, but still cold at night. We enjoyed just relaxing in these beautiful surroundings the next day.
Refreshed after a full day of lounging, our driver took us back to Ollantaytambo where we boarded a train for Aguas Calientes. We requested an early pick-up from the hotel because our scheduled pickup would not have given us enough time to make our train. It was chaos at the station. Several trains were leaving for Machu Pichu at the same time. We caught the right one and loved the ride up the narrow canyon to more lush (the dry tropics) terrain. Somehow, we missed the person who was to pick us up at the station, but we found our way to the hotel on our own. As we were checking in, the guide, Dario, showed up. He then instructed us on how our visit to Machu Pichu the following day was supposed to work. Nasha, his colleague, was to meet us at 9:40 am at the hotel and walk us to the line for the bus to Machu Pichu. Our tickets for the park were for an 11 am entry, so we had to catch the bus that would get us there by 11. Once at the park, another tour guide would meet us and 8 others for a guided tour of the ruins. Again, things didn’t go as expected. First of all, Nasha tried to get us in line to buy bus tickets which we already had. Once we told her that we had the tickets, she showed us where to go to wait for the bus. By that time, the line for the bus was at least 100 yards long. All the people in our line had 11 am entry tickets for Machu Pichu. But there was no possible way for the buses to get all the people to Machu Pichu on time.
By the time we arrived at the Entry Gate to Machu Pichu, it was 11:20 and our guide was nowhere to be found. Seeing our confusion, another guide called our tour service and eventually Dario showed up from out of thin air. He told us to hurry straight up the steps to the top where we would find our guide in a black shirt and a red tie. We entered the site and started climbing. Kathy gets winded easier than Roger, but we pushed by other groups who were resting to catch their breaths and finally got to the plateau at the top. Ulysses was nowhere to be found. Mind you, seeing Machu Pichu was to be one of the highlights of our trip and here we found ourselves, rushing through it as fast as possible to find the guide. We eventually found Ulysses and the rest of our group heading into the ruins. He claimed he hadn’t said much at all during the first ½ hour of the tour and that we didn’t miss anything. (Argh!!) We did then wander with the group through the ruins at a slow pace. The place is magnificent. How any people could build a city atop these sheer cliffs is hard to imagine. Yet there it sits. We only got an hour and a half in the park. It is worth much more. For those of you planning a trip to Machu Pichu, stay 2 nights at the park rather than in Aguas Calientes. It’s spendy, but worth it. That way you can enter the park early in the morning, enjoy the sunrise without many other tourists, and have time to sit, take in its beauty, and contemplate life. Our time was just too short.
As we left the site, we noticed the line for the bus to return to Aguas Calientes was about 1/4 mile long. We had a train to catch at 4:15 and we were uncertain the line would move fast enough for us to make our train. As we walked to the end of the line, a park policeman saw us and invited us to cut to the front of the line. (I think our gray hair did the trick!) We got on the next bus that returned to Aguas Calientes. Again, our guide didn’t show up. We waited for about 1/2 hour and then decided to go for lunch. As we were being seated, Dario showed up. We assured him that we would catch the train back to Cusco on time.
Which brings up another glitch in our plans. As we arrived at the train station, a huge crowd of people blocked our way into the waiting area. We asked what was happening. We were told an earlier train had derailed so all trains would be at least 2 hours late. We got to the train station at 4 pm and the people for the 2:10 pm train were still waiting for their train. There were 100s of people milling around, most not understanding Spanish, trying to find out when their train might arrive. We waited with them. Eventually trains started arriving and finally, at 6 pm our train appeared and they let us and the others onboard. It was a slow ride home because the engineer had to sit on the sidings waiting for other trains (now all off schedule) to pass. But, we made it back to Poroy (30 minutes outside Cusco) where a wonderfully patient driver was waiting to take us to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel about 11 pm. A very long day. We are glad we allowed ourselves an extra day in Cusco to wash clothes and relax before returning to Lima.
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