Peru Travels, Part III: Getting to Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes)

So, as I said, we took a van/bus out of Cuzco. The whole surrounding area is beautiful hilly farmland, with high peaks in the distance. We saw someone paragliding!

That van took us to Ollantaytambo, which is a town in the Sacred Valley, which just means there are a lot of Inca ruins in the area. Because of scheduling things we didn't have time to look around there, just went directly to catch our train to Aguas Calientes.  I'd never actually travelled by train before! It was a real, chuggachuggachoochoo, steam train and it went pretty damn slowly but I realized that was because it was winding around mountains.  We followed the path of the Urubamba River through the valley, and there were ceiling windows so that we could enjoy the views along the way. It got pretty hot in there with the afternoon sun and those ceiling windows.  Still, I thought it was very nice. Here it is, plus a video so you can get a feel for it, and an example of the gorgeous scenery along the way:

It's like you were right there with me! We made it to Aguas Calientes, which is not even really a functioning town so much as just the overnight point for tourists going to or coming from Machu Picchu. It's nestled in the valley straddling a river and built around the railroad tracks.  Every direction up is huge rock, and it would be a charming little place if not for the near-constant stream of Peruvians shoving menus in your face trying to get you to come eat at their restaurant.  We were accosted to sit down and eat dinner while we were very visibly lugging all our bags and things up the hill to our hostel. No thanks, sir, we're a little busy, if you can't tell. 

Plaza Mayor

restaurant row

We got to bed early that night and were quite pleased to discover our hostel had the most comfortable beds we had felt so far in Peru.  Which was a good thing, because the next day was The Big Day... 

p.s. If anyone is interested in getting a better grasp on the various ways to reach Machu Picchu, this was the best website we found that explained everything adequately for us: http://www.leaplocal.org/goinglocal/how-to-go-local-in-peru/how-to-get-to-machu-picchu/