From Cusco you can get to Machu Picchu in different ways:

1) You can do it all by train; it’s supposed to be a beautiful train ride, but after that you’re bankrupt. They charge ridiculous prices for the trip because people do it anyway.
2) You can take a minibus to a certain place and then walk for 2 hours alongside the railroad track or you can go by train.
3) You can take a bus to a town and walk for 6 hours from there or you can take the train from there.
4) You can walk the Inca trail; a 4 days/ 3 nights organized trek on the old Inca trail to Machu Picchu. But you have to book it in advance and for this year all the treks are fully booked already. You can also do an alternative trek.

We chose the second option; take a minivan to a certain place and then walk to the town of Aguas Calientes from where you can go to Machu Picchu. It was a hellish ride in that van; about 7 hours with a driver who probably bought his driving license on the internet. He was driving like a madman, but we survived. We went together with Kristoff, our Belgian cyclingfriend.

The walking part was flat and we walked through the rainforest with high rock walls on the sides. Now and then a train passed us. After about 2 hours of walking we arrived in Aguas Calientes which lies in the valley. Machu Picchu is op on the mountains.

We were advised to go up early because there aren’t as many people up there then. So we got up early. To get to the top of the mountain you have a few choices again:

1) You can walk up; 400 meters (1200 ft) straight up through stairs
2) You can take the bus up and down
3) You can take the bus one way (whichever way you want) and walk the other way

Kristoff walked, we were lazy and took the bus. We were up there at about 6:30 am. It was still chilly, but when the sun came out it became very nice and warm.

Machu Picchu itself is very impressing and mysterious. They still don’t know much about it, they don’t even know what it was used for. There are different theories but nobody knows which one (if any) is the right one. They think the whole place was abandoned about 40 years before the Spanish came so it became covered by the forest and that’s why they never discovered it. It was discovered in the 19th century by a German and after that it was found by a couple of locals and explorers. It is said that the treasures were taken away and sold to European museums.

In 1911 it was re-discovered by the American historian Hiram Bingham who was searching for the lst city Vilcabamba. He thought he found it when he discovered Machu Picchu. He was researching Inca culture and met 2 farmers who were farming the slopes of Machu Picchu. The son of one of them showed him the ruines. Machu Picchu was re-discovered and in 1913 a whole edition of the National Geographic was dedicated to ‘The lost city of the Incas’.

After many hours on the mountain and in the sun, we went back down and after another night in Aguas Calientes we went back to Cusco the same way we came; 2 hours of walking the railroad tracks and about 7 hours in a minivan with the same crazy driver. When we arrived back at our hostal in Cusco late that night, our bed was already waiting for us.