As our time in Peru slowly came to an end we had to make an important decision. Should we really visit the most famous, probably overcrowded and definitely overpriced highlight of the South: Machu Picchu?!
As we looked it up online and went to some of the thousands travel agencies in Cusco, we quickly realized that this trip wouldn’t be cheap… 💸
Big plans
Nonetheless we finally decided to visit Machu Picchu on our own! We bought the tickets for Machu Picchu and the Machu Picchu Mountain in a office in Cusco. The tickets alone cost us about 55€ each.
To start the trip we had to get to the village of Aguas Calientes which is closest to Machu Picchu. Doing that involved our last tour to Sacred Valley to end in Ollantaytambo. So we booked one of these really overpriced train ticket from there. After one night in a hostel we were ready! Since we were still haunted by the hiking nightmares of Colca Canyon we went by bus (again quite pricey) to the entrance of majestic MACHU PICCHU!
Machu Picchu first impressions
Arriving around 8 a.m. we were already surrounded by a lot of tourists but the amazing weather helped us to forget that really fast. We were told that the day before everything was cloudy, rainy and the visibility was pretty bad…so we were really lucky today!
First we wanted to go inside on our own as our tickets included the Machu Picchu Mountain. For the main area it is advised to take a guide with you. We made our way to the first viewpoints and finally saw the amazing panorama everybody knows from the pictures. All of our thoughts about how expensive it was to get here were gone! Also we weren’t that shocked by the number of tourists…we expected worse!
After taking of course hundreds of pictures of the main viewpoints, we made our way outside of the main area. We started a small hike up into the mountains to the famous Sun Gate. From there we got a great view from another angle. It was also perfect as this area wasn’t really crowded and Christian could take some 360 videos! In the main area it was forbidden to take a selfie-stick with you, so it wasn’t possible to take great videos with our Insta360. 🤨
Our ticket for the Machu Picchu Mountain was only valid until 10 a.m., so before we wanted to do the main area with a guide we headed there. What we didn’t know about the mountain was that the hike up to the top would be about 4 hours! Reminded again of our last hike up a mountain, we only hiked up the first 30 minutes and came back down again. Yes, this ticket wasn’t worth the extra money. 😅
Machu Picchu with a guide
Now it was time to get a little background information. We headed back to the entrance and picked one of the English speaking guides. We found ourselves in a tour with two guys from India. The guide was pretty good and showed us around the impressive complex. With stops for the best viewpoints and even away from the other tourist groups, we made our way through the ruins of the most popular Incan citadel. The former Temple of the Sun and the Room of the Three Windows are just two examples for the impressive architectural masterpiece.
After the tour we stayed a little longer reflecting the impressions and shared some information with the Indian guys. Before we went back down by bus we said goodbye to the Lamas and one of the most impressive archaeological sites.
Time to get back
Back in Aguas Calientes we took a lunch break and looked for some fruits and fresh juices, as there was plenty of time left until our train would ride back to Ollantaytambo. Or so we thought! 🙄😅
While buying the juices, all relaxed and with happy thoughts of the day, we took a quick look at our train tickets…and realised that it would leave in about 5 minutes!! Panickly we rushed to the train and luckily caught it. At least we had the juices to calm down again…
We were really happy that we did Machu Picchu as it is a once in a liftetime experience. Of course it was one of the most expensive tours we did in Peru but totally worth it! With around 200€ each we did it as cheap as possible. 😁
