Paul Sharman
We were staying at the Tambo del Inka and had a great big (free) breakfast at the Tambo del Inka as we knew we would be skipping lunch. We booked a driver through the hotel to get to/from the train station. He arrived right at 7:45 and it took about ?é?? hour to get to the Ollantaytambo station. Before we got on board, we bought some bug spray at one of the stalls near the station.
We boarded around 8:30 for our 8:53 train. The views on the way through the valley were pretty nice. We arrived on time around 10:20 and our guide met us outside the train station. The guide was booked through our Sacred Valley guide so we were a bit hesitant after we had a less than excellent experience the day before. As it turned out, we did not have anything to worry about. He took us down to buy bus tickets, which were $24pp round trip. They take credit cards.
We then got in line for the 12 noon bus with our guide and waited a little while. The buses run constantly so even with a long line, the wait is not too bad. The weather was fairly warm and dry with some cloud cover ?ó?é¼?Ç£ lucky for us during rainy season.
The bus ride up was scenic (when on the correct side of the switchback) and took about 20 minutes. We were finally at Machu Picchu!
We had arranged with the guide that we would add on a hike to the Sun Gate for me and my daughter. My wife was not going to do it, so we took some pictures overlooking the ruins then found her a spot to sit. We hiked up fairly quickly and stopped for some pictures on the way.
At the Sun Gate, the guide explained some of the history and took some pictures of us. We hiked down pretty quickly, met up with my wife then headed into the ruins proper. Our guide led us around and explained the history, both confirmed and theoretical, as much of it was lost when the Spaniards killed all the Inca ruling class. There were also llamas and alpacas roaming around the site (to help cut the grass).
We completed our tour around 3:30pm and got our passports stamped (the line was much longer when we arrived as all the Inca trail hikers had been leaving.) If you are not going to hike a mountain, I definitely recommend a noon booking for MP. It was not very crowded the whole time we were there. Granted, we were also there in the rainy season. It is no doubt busier at other times of year. The weather was great all day for us. It was humid but the rain held off.
After we took the bus down, we invited our great guide to join us for a beer. He recommended Mapacho, a local microbrewery right near the train station. We had a great meal (I had lomo saltado with alpaca meat) and good beers. Afterwards, we said our farewells and he pointed us in the direction of the station. We had some time to look through the market near the station for a few souvenirs before we boarded our train back to Ollantaytambo.
The train ride back was a bit boring, as it got dark so there was no scenery. Our driver was waiting for us just outside the station, and we were back at the TdI by 8:30pm. We skipped dinner at the hotel as we were still full from the meal at Mapacho. It was a great day and the main reason we went to Peru. It lived up to our expectations!
#travelmore
