The Road to Machu Picchu

Train's on time.

The road is long. With many a winding turn. An overwrought pop song? Or the story of the trek from Cusco to Machu Picchu?

The first leg was by bus.

Not that bus. This bus.

The "many a winding turn" line clearly refers to all the switchbacks getting out of Cusco and then up the hill to Machu Picchu.

Then there was a train.

Not that train.  This train.

A blue PeruRail VistaDome, with glass roofs to see upward into the sky.

Which really isn't necessary because all the scenery you want to see you can see from looking out the windows to your side. You don't need the "up" view.

What, you may be asking, am I doing on the Road to Machu Picchu? You may remember me once saying that Machu Picchu wasn't really on my list. And it wasn't. Until I changed my mind. Which I did. So I went.

The train is the most common, most tourist-friendly way to go. Of course, you could hike the four-day hike along the Inca Trail that runs roughly alongside the train tracks which run roughly alongside the Urubamba River for the journey from Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley to the tourist town of Aguascaliente, the terminus of the rail line to Machu Picchu.

The Urubamba River looked very angry today.

I'm not sure if it is like this all year long or just the rainy season. This is, by the way, the rainy season.

The forecast was for a thunderstorms at Machu Picchu all afternoon.

These last few pics, by the way, were shot looking outside the window of the train car. That's usually not ideal, but it worked because of the amazing scenery, going from the desert-like environment around Ollantaytambo (you can see trackside prickly pear cactus growing a few pictures up) to the jungle area of Aguascalientes.

The travel from Cusco to Aguascalientes was a fairly major decent, going from the 11,150 feet elevation of Cusco, to 9,160 feet above sea level at Ollantaytambo, to a mere 6,790 feet for Agauascalientes. (We will re-ascend to 7,972 feet for Machu Picchu.) Essentially, we go from where altitude sickness is a major problem (Cusco) to maybe a little shortness of breath but no headaches or nausea (Ollantaytambo) to a problem-free elevation at the end of the line (Aguascalientes), with Aguascalientes being the elevation of Flagstaff, Arizona. And no one ever got altitude sickness in Flagstaff.

This is the tourist town of Aguascalientes.

 

Lots of bars and restauraunts, souvenir shops (usually selling stuffed llamas), and some hotels for people who have not scheduled a killer 16-hour one-day round trip to Machu Picchu from Cusco.

The final mode of transit will be another bus.

I love Andean flute music. Who doesn't. It is appropriately atmospheric for the journey from Cusco to Machu Picchu. But after listening to a steady supply of the atmospheric Andean flute on the bus and then the train, a change of pace was nice. This is what was playing on the bus when we started the drive to Machu Picchu.

Next post: Actually being at and seeing Machu Picchu. This post was just about the journey. And isn't that what's it really about it? Well, maybe not when you're talking about one of the world's major tourist destinations.