Machu Picchu is one of the ”New 7 Wonders of the World.” Built around 1450 by the Incas, but soon left abandoned due to the Spanish invasion. The ruins of Machu Picchu were rediscovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, from where it started to gain popularity as tourist attraction. Located at 2430 meters above sea level, in the remote Sacred Valley, it is certainly not an attraction easily reachable, especially not for budget travelers.
Cusco
We decided to make Cusco our home base for visiting Machu Picchu. After arriving from Lake Titicaca, we decided to stay in Cusco for six days to relax since our travel in Bolivia was quick paced. Cusco is a charming city with great architecture and it has a great (international) food scene. However, our main reason was visiting Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu
From Cusco it takes around four hours to get to the smaller and more expensive town of Machu Picchu. Normally, one takes a train directly from Cusco, yet because of the rainy season we had to take a bus and train combo about two hours each. We opted to visit Machu Picchu only one day, so adding up all the hours in transit it was a rather exhausting day.
Once you arrive in the town of Machu Picchu, you can take a bus to get to the top of the mountain, where the actual ruins of Machu Picchu are located. Unfortunately, bus prices have increased over the last years, causing a lot of budget travelers to walk the stairs all the way to the top. This will take you at least two hours of stair climbing, so we just paid the 24$ and got on the bus.
At the top, you enter Machu Picchu and are greeted with a great view over the mountain where the majority of the city was built. Luckily, weather was in our favor with little rain, while normally it can rain quite badly this time of year. After walking around the ruins, we decided to hike one of the many trails around the city. We chose the Inca Bridge trail, not knowing what this bridge exactly was. After fifteen minutes of hiking we arrived at the bridge, which turned out to be an incomplete part in the pathway next to a gigantic rock-face. Later on, we found out this supposedly was one of the secret entrances to Machu Picchu, used by the Incas to escape if necessary.
All in all, our one day visit cost us around 200$ each, quite pricy, but in the end Machu Picchu is a sight not to be missed as it offers spectacular views.
