Are we there yet? Wait, where is "there"?: Machu Picchu – high altitude, higher expectations and highest prices

Erik: Ever since we began planning this trip years ago – when all we had

were pins on huge world map on our wall, Machu Picchu had been on our “must do” list, and since arriving in South America, we'd been thinking about it and looking forward to it. Along our travels we'd run into other travelers coming from there, and their enthusiasm and lack of vocabulary for the beauty of the mountain-top Inca ruins only served to flame our expectations higher. This is the part where I'm supposed to say how let down we were, but I can't – MP really is that jaw-droppingly beautiful and impressive. This despite the innumeral things seemingly devised to put you off it, from overpriced everything (trains, trails, buses, bathrooms), to the sheer difficulty of getting there (which in the end is surely a good thing, given the hoards that go there every day despite the inconvenience...) Don't get me wrong, we're very happy we went, but just about everything involved in getting there left a bad taste in our mouths, and we're happy now that we've been there and can move on.

There are only two ways to get to Machu Picchu – treking or training. Treking involves anywhere from 3 to 7 days hiking up-and-down through the Andes, usually needs to be booked months in advance, and costs hundreds and hundreds of dollars (quite a drain on a daily budget as small as ours.) Still, I was interested in doing it, and probably could have found a last-minute cancellation at one of the hundreds of tour agencies in Cusco. The stomach bug and several days of solid rain put me off that idea, though. We opted for the lazy-man's way up, via the train.

The train isn't cheap, either. The 1 ½ hour ride from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (at the base of MP) cost us $68 each in lowly “backpacker class.” To put that in perspective, a 12 hour bus ride in first class costs around $20 in Peru. The train ride was beautiful, though, with high-andes jungle terrain that reminded us of the beginning of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, with ultra-steep rock cliffs draped with huge vines overhanging a rushing mountain river.

Aguas Calientes was not so beautiful – really nothing more than rapidly-built, ugly tourist way-station on the way to MP. We did manage to find cheap, if very basic, accommodations after a bit of hunting (we paid about $13 instead of the $60 most places were charging.) We then bought our hugely over-priced bus tickets up for the next morning ($7 for a 20-minute drive) and were all set. You can hike up from Aguas Calientes, but it takes hours up a sheer staircase, and we hoped to get the first bus up and beat the swarms of tourists. Unfortunately, many of them had the same idea as us, and at 5:15am the next morning, we took our place in the bus line behind a hundred or so others...

Once up top at the entrance, the fun continued. The “free” baggage storage we'd been told about cost $3, and the bathrooms $1 (more if you wanted paper to take in with you.) The biggest surprise of all was the entrance fee. We'd read that it was a bit over $20, which seemed expensive, but that information was obviously a few years old – it cost $42 to get in. $42 goes a long way in Peru – usually.

OK, now that the griping is over with, Machu Picchu is truly amazing. We were there on a beautiful, clear, morning as the sun rose over the mountains, whose peaks were still swathed in clouds. The seeming hoards of early arrivals dispersed easily throughout the large ruins, and we had moments in the first hour or so where we were alone to take in the dramatic landscape, or snap postcard-perfect photos (see link below...) Even after all the hype, the expectations, and frustrations of getting there, it was awe-inspiring. After all the rain earlier in the week, we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day, with its beautiful, early-morning light. And in the end it was well worth the money and hassle of getting there.

Now I've written way more than enough, so I'll let Talor and the photos speak for themselves...

Talor: It's true all of that leading up to MP was one annoyance after another, but once we got in and huffed and puffed our way to the top for a global view, it was awesome! (How happy we were to be already acclimated to the altitude.) There is no other word I can think of that would be more apt to describe it... it was simply AWESOME!! And tho we took a million photos, they don't begin to describe what we saw and how we felt... ahhh, all is forgiven...