MACHU PICHU ON THE CHEAP

We went to Machu Picchu in the middle of April, 2012.

We had read in the Lonely Planet there was a bus route to Santa Maria, which would get you close to the train station on the western side of MP. The bus leaves from the Santiago station in Cusco, which you can easily walk to from Plaza de Armas. We got a ticket for the Salva Sur bus company, and the bus was scheduled to leave at 8am, but true to Latin American style, it left at 8:30. It was a really shitty, dirty bus, and there was a guy with a live chicken sitting behind us (which wasn't bad, it was a very well behaved chicken.) The buses leave all morning, but if you want to get to Agua Caliente before dark, I'd take one at 7am. The other bus company is Ampay, which we took on the way back, and although it was a nicer bus, there was a small roach crawling on the wall next to me. So, take your pick! The Ampay bus left at the same times from the Santiago station. They were also the same price, which was 15 Soles (about $6). This is a 5 – 6 hour bus ride, so it's pretty cheap.

The bus doesn't stop for potty or food purchasing, really. It did stop, I'm not sure if it was to let people pee, but it was not at a bathroom, so if you peed, it would have to be in the woods/nature surrounding. People do get on the bus to sell food, however. I got a snack, which was a boiled egg surrounded in mash potato and deep fried. Really good.

The drive is beautiful. It winds slowly up a huge mountain, and it also goes through a very cute town.... If you have time and want to be leisurely, you could even get off here and spend the night if you want. It's touristy, with hostels and lots of restaurants.

Then you go on to Santa Maria, which is a dusty, ugly town. They will announce it when you get there, since a lot of people get off. When you get off, taxi drivers will surround you and want to take you to the next town, Santa Teresa, or the Hydro station, which is where the train station is too, and is about 8km past Santa Teresa. The last train to Agua Caliente is at 4:30pm and costs $18 USD one way, so if you want to catch that, then tell your taxi driver you want to leave now. If you want to walk from the Hydro station, it's about a 2.5 – 3 hour walk. This is why you have to start as early as possible, because walking in the dark sucked. We did it. Sunset is around 5:45 in April. We paid 15 Soles to take a taxi straight to the Hydro station from Santa Maria. If you are going to do the same, and walk up to Agua Caliente from there, you should get something to eat in Santa Maria, so you have energy. The walk isn't hard, just long. But if you want you can stay the night in Santa Teresa. It's got several hostels and restaurants, and is a nicer town then Santa Maria. The ride to Santa Teresa should only be 10 Soles. Also, we wanted to leave right away, because we thought we might want to catch the train. At the time we didn't know the train to Agua Caliente was $18 USD. Our driver was lagging, trying to get more people in the cab (they will PACK it in) and so we got out and took another driver. The drive is on the edge of a mountain, and is not paved, and goes through rivers, so it's a bit freaky, but the drivers seem very competent. Our driver stopped briefly in Santa Teresa and put 3 more people in the car, so there was a total of 7 passengers (2 in the trunk, it was a station wagon).

We got to the Hydro station at 4:30 on the dot, and when we found out it was $18 USD to ride the train to Agua Caliente, we decided to walk. It was drizzling, so we bought ponchos for 2 Soles as the station, and Jesse bought a couple beers. There is food and drink there too, as well as a hostel that looked pretty decent.

To walk up to Agua, you literally follow the train tracks. You can cut up the hill at a couple places. There is a red, dubious looking metal bridge, and there are several bridges over rivers that you have to walk over the wood slabs of the tracks, which was slightly freaky, especially in the dark. If you don't want to walk in the dark, I'd suggest checking what time the sunset is and planning accordingly. After a couple hours you will get to a shabby looking “train station,” but you need to keep walking along the tracks another 20 minutes to get to the town of Agua Caliente. You will walk through 2 tunnels and over the tracks over several small rivers. The tracks will take you right to the middle of the town. There are nice restaurants and hotels everywhere. We stayed at the first hotel on the right of the tracks as you walk into town, something Pichu. It was only 20 soles a person, and it was clean, with warm water. Of course, it's pretty loud due to the train.

It's such a touristy town and over-priced, so the restaurants are all stupid expensive. Our hotel didn't have a kitchen, so we had to eat out. There wasn't much in the way of a grocery store anyway. We found a place deep in the town on the right side of the tracks, that had a soup and main course for 7 soles. Everything else was around 20 for a set lunch, and of course, went much higher then that.

When you get to town, go and buy your Machu Pichu tickets right away, since they only let 2,500 people in a day. I'd check the weather before you leave Cusco, just to make sure it won't rain, although on the day we went it wasn't supposed to rain, but it started raining at about noon. So bring your raincoats anyway!

We took the bus up from Agua to MP. It's $9 each way, and a bit more for only one way, so if there are two of you, get one round trip ticket and use the return trip as your other one way. They don't look at the tickets.

We didn't get a guide at MP, but there are tons of them at the gate. We had read about it before hand, but a guide would have been nice to explain some of the details of the rocks. There are tons of tours though, so we listened in on them.

The ticket to MP says you can't bring food or plastic bottles inside, but there were people everywhere with both...

We took the stairs back down to Agua. It was pretty painful, after walking the day before and all around MP for a few hours. But it was also cool. When you get to the bridge at the bottom of the hill there is a little restaurant. We had a beer, before continuing along the road to Agua. But we hitch hiked almost immediately, which was nice, since it was raining!

The next morning we left to walk back along the tracks to the Hydro at 7:30am. We weren't sure how it was all going to work out regarding taxi's and buses. We knew a train left Agua for the Hydro at 8:30, so there would be taxi's waiting for those passengers at about 9:30, and another train left Agua at 12:30. We got to the Hydro station and there was a mini bus waiting which was going to a town ten minutes walk from Santa Teresa, and cost us 4 soles each. So we took it. We saw people along the road walking from Santa Teresa to the Hydro, which seemed a bit crazy, as it's about 8km and it's not as nice a walk as along the tracks to Agua.

We got out of the mini bus down the road from Santa Teresa, and walked a few minutes, then up a huge staircase, then to the right, and we were in the town. We walked down to the main square. At first we couldn't figure out where to get a cab. There were three empty ones lined up, and we waited by them, but nothing happened. Jesse went to ask some random people where to go, and they directed us to a street connected to the main square that had hostels and restaurants on it. There was a cab hanging out, who said he'd take us to Santa Maria for 10 soles. When we got to Santa Maria, the cabby told us we could buy a mini bus ticket for 30 soles, Salva Sur bus for 15, or Ampay for 15. The ticket offices are right on the main strip that the buses and cabs stop at. The Ampay place has a sign out front and is a restaurant/shop. We got the next Ampay bus, which was at 2:30, which meant waiting over 2 hours. The bus didn't come until 3pm, however.

We got into Cusco at about 8:30pm.

We had left our big bags at our hotel, and just booked a room for that night at the hotel as well.