Machu Picchu

On our first visit to Machu Picchu our guide, Luis from Kuoda Travel, brought us into Machu Picchu through the less populated back entry. This was our first view of Machu Picchu.

No matter how many pictures you’ve seen of Machu Picchu it does not compare with viewing it in person. This view is considered the back of the complex. You can easily see some of the terraces used for farming, the rock quarry, some of the buildings and Huayna Picchu (the mountain right behind Machu Picchu which we climbed the next day).

We are now standing above the front section of Machu Picchu. I am not sure how we ended up at this vantage point, as we were just following our guide, but we had it to ourselves for a bit. If you’d like to try and find it, all I can tell you is we went to the left at the entrance, everyone else went to the right. It was a path with a lot of vegetation and biting sand flies. More on that later, all I’ll say for now is, “Ouch!!”

Our guide was a walking encyclopedia. He gave us a brief overview of Incan history and some of the theories on what the buildings were used for. Machu Picchu is situated in the Andes mountains at 2,440 meters  (7,972 feet) above sea level. It is actually lower than Cusco. While researching our trip, I found that some websites say you are required to have a guide to enter. We had a guide, it was part of our travel package, but not everyone there did. If you haven’t read up on Machu Picchu and would like to learn about what you are looking at, I would recommend hiring a guide.

One thing that I love is literally walking through clouds. This part of the Andes is considered to be a tropical mountain forest. Our guide told us they call it a “Cloud Forest” which is a beautiful and apt description. The clouds were constantly moving so the view kept changing, all of them utterly captivating. Fun fact (maybe not fun, but a fact) there are over 3,000 stairs in Machu Picchu. In the above photo you are looking at more farming terraces and food storage buildings. You are free to explore almost everything.

The residences, temples, astronomy towers, royal palace and tomb are located behind the two main squares (the open spaces). The section in front of the main squares housed the prisoners (who built and farmed), the Industrial Zone and the House of Factories. One thing we did not see, which I regret was the Sun Gate. It is a hike about a mile up Machu Picchu Mountain, it marks the end of the Inca Trail and has a great view of the ruins. We opted to hike Huayna Picchu, which was wonderful and I highly recommend, I just wish we would have done both (on separate days). If you’d like to read up on the hike to the Sun Gate check out this blog for info and pictures.

The rainy season for this area of Peru is from November to March. We were there on Oct. 1st and 2nd. It rained on us for a bit on the first day, but the resulting rainbows were fantastic! You could see both ends of the rainbow. At one point we had a triple rainbow. The number of tourists allowed entry is limited, so be sure to buy your tickets in advance. I can not recommend a website for purchasing, our travel agency took care of all our tickets on our behalf. The current cost (2020) is $65/person ($80/person for entry to Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu. It is open from 6am-5pm. (While the Covid-19 pandemic is still a problem, you should check the status of travel restrictions both for the country and for the sites you wish to visit.)

If you have yet to see a llama in Peru, you will see them here. They generally stay in the main squares, but we had one that decided to walk on the trail. Our guide warned us that they could bite or kick so we should not try to pet them. We didn’t see them showing any aggression while we were there. If you want to see more llamas than tourists you are out of luck, but the afternoon is definitely less crowded than the morning.

Machu Picchu was my #1 bucket list item so I enjoyed every minute of our visit, even the rainy ones. However, there are some things that I would have done differently.

1) The altitude is too high for mosquitoes but not for midges (biting flies). We knew there were no mosquitoes so we did not use bug spray. Big, big, big mistake. My husband and I had so many painful bites on our legs that we looked like we had measles. Luckily, we found a group of tourists who were willing to share their DEET with us. I am usually not a big fan of DEET but I put it on like my life depended on it. It took over a month for the bites to disappear from our legs. My sister and her husband were in pants so they did not suffer our fate. Advice, either wear pants or bring bug spray, or both!

2) I would have told the travel agency that we wanted to hike to the Sun Gate. The likelihood of us going back is pretty remote, so it would have been great to have that experience as well.

3) The first day our guide had us leave before the site closed. I would have told him to give us our bus tickets and let us wander around on our own until closing. It was easy to find our way back to the hotel. Aguas Calientes is not that big. For some reason I was thinking we had to get back on the train at a certain time, but that was the next day, so I didn’t question why we were leaving.  🙁

Things to remember:

1) Buy your tickets in advance.

2) Wear good hiking shoes. You will be climbing a lot of stone steps. They can get slippery if it rains.

3) Bring a raincoat.

Our second day at Machu Picchu we did a little more exploring of the site before we started our hike up Huayna Picchu. As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life. Also, wishing the world a speedy return to health and normalcy!

(All pictures are available for purchase as Fine Art or Digital Downloads at full resolution through Alamy. If you see something you like, click on the link. If you are unable to find it, use the Contact Me page and I will make sure the image is available.)

More Adventures in Peru

To Walk or To Ride To Machu Picchu

Aguas Calientes the Gateway to Machu Picchu

Hiking Down the Patacancha Valley

Hiking Through the Amazon Rainforest to Oxbow Lake

Pin for later!