Cusco
For anyone who wants to see Machu Picchu, the trip starts in Cusco. Our tickets included a 4-hour train ride to the site and back, a 10-minute shuttle bus to the entrance and admission to the ruins. We got up very early to take the first train so we’d have more time in Machu Picchu.
We bought tickets from an agency in Cusco 2 days in advance. Visiting Machu Picchu nowadays is more complicated. It is advisable to check ticket availability well beforehand and to buy them online (https://www.ticketmachupicchu.com). Also, there are four types of tickets instead of one ‒ Machu Picchu only, Machu Picchu + Huayna Picchu, Machu Picchu + Mountain, and Machu Picchu + Museum.
Even back in 2004, the place was crowded. We had to wait at the gate to enter the site but our time at Machu Picchu was limited only by the departure time of the last train to Cusco and climbing Huayna Picchu was free. Now in an effort to curb overtourism, the authorities introduced a new rule.
With an average of 4,300 tourists crowding its narrow walkways every day, officials took bold action, introducing a strict new ticketing system in January 2019. Tickets are now time limited, with slots lasting four hours and no re-entry allowed. (Source: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/how-to-stop-overtourism/index.html)
Machu Picchu is an Incan city built in the 15th century and abandoned in the 16th century when the Inca Empire was conquered by the Spaniards. The jungle swallowed the city. Its ruins were discovered by chance in 1911, only 108 years ago.
Machu Picchu was probably the most outstanding creation of the Inca. It is still a mystery why they built a city on a small plateau high in the Andes that was hard to access. It was a royal estate divided into an upper town with houses for the royalty and temples and a lower town with warehouses and simpler buildings. The Inca made hundreds of agricultural terraces to grow corn and potatoes.
To me, the most impressive thing about Machu Picchu was its settings – the location at an altitude of 7,972 feet (2,430 meters), tall Andean peaks that surrounded the site, its remoteness. I had seen a few Inca ruins the day before and already got an idea of what they look like.
We were done with seeing Machu Picchu and had about 1.5 hours until our train back to Cusco. My husband suddenly announced that he wanted to use this time to climb Huayna Picchu, the mountain that overlooks Machu Picchu and that is in the back of every photo of the ruins. He told me that I was not going with him. I would slow him down, together we would not make it in time for the train and, therefore, I was to stay and wait for him. He pointed at the spot where I was to remain. I begged to go too but my opinion did not matter. I knew that I was not a match for my husband and he was probably right but it hurt to be treated like that anyway.
There was nothing left to see in Machu Picchu for me. I sat down to watch other tourists and llamas. My husband returned out of breath claiming that he ran downhill. That’s why he climbed Huayna Picchu in a record time.
Puno