Day 86 - Six wonders down

Ollantaytambo / Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is capped at 2,500 visitors per day (we had heard that before the limit was applied up up to 6000 people would visit), so we'd had to book our places online in advance. Getting there for sunrise is a big deal for some people, but we weren't too fussed, there is often cloud and/or rain in the morning, and we wanted to avoid the crowds, so we had opted for the 8:30am train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, and from there we'd take the bus up to MP.

After a pleasant train trip which included breakfast (nothing special though, just a chocolate croissant) we arrived at MP around 11am. to find (as we expected) hordes of people. As we planned to stay until the end of the day we broke away from the masses and took the trail to the Sun Gate (which is the first sight of Machu Picchu for those doing the Inca Trail hike), not realising it was a 90 minute return trip, but we had some great views of Machu Picchu on the way and it certainly helped us with our plan to try and avoid the masses.

There were a couple of annoying things about visiting MP, one is that your passport gets worn out with everyone looking at it. First of all to buy the tickets - MP entry, train and  bus, then again on boarding the train, then entering Machu Picchu, and as there are no toilets inside MP you need to exit and then show your ticket and passport again! You are also only allowed two toilet visits for the day - to bad if you have a bad case of diarrhea!

Back to MP itself, we arrived back from our trek to the Sun Gate to find the main area much quieter and we enjoyed wandering the area listening to various guides suggesting information (they really don't know for sure about much of the information) about all the different areas. The ruins are very impressive and managed and restored very well and being there towards the end of the day was very enjoyable.

We caught the bus back to Agua Calientes (yes passports again) and we had some time to fill in until our (and everyone else's) trains were ready to leave for Ollaytantambo. We had read in a few places that Aguas Calientes isn't a nice town but we liked the way it fitted in next to the river and the steep mountain slopes on either side. There was a crowd of people at the station as there had been a two hour break since the previous train had left, which seemed strange when MP itself closed at 5pm.

The return train trip was a bit cheesy, with loud music and clown type entertainment, and a "fashion show" of alpaca clothing to buy (which amazingly some people actually bought, perhaps they hadn't noticed the stalls and shops in every single town and tourist stop in Peru selling the same sort of stuff?).  We could have done without the extras - a cheaper no frills train trip would have done us just fine!

As an aside, Machu Picchu is the sixth of the "new" seven wonders of the world that we've seen - so we just have the Great Wall of China left!