Machu Picchu & The Sacred Valley

Tips:

• Bring spare tissues or toilet paper. Be prepared to throw all toilet paper in the trash. You WILL clog toilets if not.

• Prepare for altitude sickness. It doesn’t affect everyone but if you are someone who has gotten motion sickness or is prone to common ailments like headaches then go to the local pharmacy as soon as you arrive and ask for pills for altitude sickness. I was ok for 3 days but the evening f the 3rd day I got a migraine and loss of appetite that had be in bed. It was only when my friend bought me those pills that I felt better.

• Many people don’t speak english so best advice is to know basic Spanish

• Brush up on your negotiation skills.

• There is no such thing as fast service. Prepare to wait a long time for your food. This was a common theme. When we were in a hurry we had to tell them in advance and give them a specific time that we needed to leave. Usually then they would suggest food that they could cook quickly.

• Tons of drug dealers are in Cusco. They normally target males and sometimes you dont even know they are selling drugs. A man in the main square was selling “paintings” but behind those paintings was cocaine and marijuana. I had no clue because I was naive and not paying attention but the rest of my group caught on to it. We also believe it was more than normal since we were there for New Years.

• Speaking of New Years. Plan yours in Cusco. It was crowds of crazy people setting of all sorts of fireworks. They all wear yellow and you can buy loads of yellow things are the market during the day. Once the clock strikes the new year, the crowd circles the square 12 times. 4 of us are not partiers so this festivity was perfect and then we went back to the hotel while the 2 part goers of the group managed to dance and party until 6 in the morning.

• Plastic bottle ARE allowed at Machu Picchu. Other blogs say they aren’t and suggest bringing a reusable bottle but you don’t have to. Just buy a bottle of water in Aguas Calientes before going up to Machu Picchu.

• Prepare for fog in the morning. The “typical” Machu Picchu are that you are used to seeing in photos is at the very beginning of the entrance. If it is foggy you will not see it. The fog lifts around lunchtime normally.

• Skip the Sundial trail if you are out of shape or if it’s foggy. You won’t have a nice view at the top because of the fog and it is a very intense climb for about 45 minutes upward. Me and my friends had to take many stops to catch our breath due to the altitude.

• Prepare to wait in lines & prepare your time wisely. I didn’t read anywhere about how many lines are required to wait in just to get INTO Machu Picchu. You need to wait in line to buy bus tickets up to Machu Picchu (if you don’t hike), you need to then wait in line to get on a bus, you then need to wait in line to enter Machu Picchu. In total it took our group about 1 hour 20 min of line waiting before we entered Machu Picchu.

• Pack light & plan accordingly. Inca rail train line mentions in their fine print that they only allow small backpacks on board the train and have the right to refuse boarding of customers with more than a backpack. I found this very confusing because I saw many customers with larger luggage on the train but I also noticed on some trains hardly any space for storage of luggage. I think this lack of storage is why there are limitations. I don’t think it’s worth the risk so I would recommend leaving luggage at your hotel before getting on the train and returning to that hotel to pick it up afterward. We did this in Ollantaytambo because we took a taxi between Cusco & Ollantaytambo. It was cheaper for a larger group of people (160 soles/$48 per car)

• Research both Inca rail and Peru Rail. They are different companies both offering trains to Aguas Calientes.

• You have 3 options for places to stay while doing Machu Picchu: Cusco, Ollantaytambo, Aguas Calientes. All have their pros and cons and I don’t think you will regret staying in any of them. Pick based on how early you want to wake up to take the train or go up to Machu Picchu or how much travel you want to do after Machu Picchu.

• Contact Gonzalo! Phone: 941 028725 Email: gonzalo_rojas@gmail.com  This taxi driver is what made our trip (excluding Machu Picchu). If you are taking a taxi from Cusco to Ollantaytambo you should use him. He also offered to drive us to other sights around the Sacred Valley and for a very low price. He charged 20 soles for a taxi ride from our hotel in central Cusco to the airport. 100 soles for a taxi ride to 4 different ruins around Cusco in about a 3 hour trip. He even was a tour guide at one of the ruins! He only speaks Spanish though so please understand this. If you understand Spanish, he is a great option because he is cheaper than paying for a tour guide at each of the places and he does it in a faster time than the typical tours. This way you can see more in less time.

 

Common Phrases:

• Hello- Hola

• Good morning- Buenos dias

• Good afternoon- Buenas tardes

• Good evening- Buenas noches

• See you later- hasta luego

• Whats up?- Que tal?

• The bill- La cuenta

• How much does it cost?- Cuanto cuesta?

• Please- Por favor

• Thank you- gracias

• Thanks you very much- Muchas gracias

• No-no

• Yes- si

 

Unique:

• If staying in Ollantaytambo ( i highly recommend it). You should certainly book this airbnb. The owners, Bill and Nic went above and beyond helping plan our trip. They can book a taxi driver to pick you up in Cusco, buy your Machu Picchu tickets, buy your train tickets to Machu Picchu. Anything you need help with, they will help. This is why I found this stay a unique one. Plus, if you are someone who is interested in helping others, Bill and Nic also work with local organizations so you can ask them if there is any donation needs that you can bring and they will let you know. We brought school supplies which helps us fill our suitcases but left us with space to buy things when we got there.

• There is a Tourist ticket for all tourist destinations around Cusco. You can pay to enter each one separately or you can buy a ticket that works for all sites. Gonzalo, the taxi driver i mentioned earlier offered to take us to most of them. He could do some in the 3 hours tour mentioned above and he could do the rest in a day trip 8-5. We skipped the day trip but it was a good offer.

• Chinchero is a great little town that has shops which show you how alpaca wool is turned into yarn and then made into textiles. It’s a cute little show and I thought it was worth it since it was free and they only asked for tips. However, the prices they were charging for their goods was phenomenally higher than every other town. And since you watched their presentation on how wool is transformed they guilt you if you don’t buy something. You can decide whether you think this is worth it or not.

 

Food & Drink:

• There are many typical dishes in this region that are worth trying. If you are a vegetarian then I would not expect to food to be much different than the norm. Lomo Slatado is a red meat dish, Alpaca is a red meat dish (very lean and worth trying). They also eat guinea pig. Those are the 3 most common but you can see they are meat related. I do not eat meat and found the food to be ok in all 3 places.

• Coca tea will be served everywhere. Its very light and if you are a tea drinker you’ll like it and if you aren’t a tea drinker you will think it tastes bland and not that good. It definitely takes the edge off of people who have slight altitude sickness but it did NOT help me when my altitude sickness was extreme.

• Real Panaka in Ollantaytambo square was recommended to us by a local as one of the restaurants with the most fresh food. Again, you read above my opinion of the food so I don’t really know if this place was truly better than any other. The owner was ridiculously nice though so I enjoyed giving him our money.

• Kion is a Peruvian Chinese restaurant in Cusco and that was definitely the best food I ate while in the region. They have many sister restaurants in town to try as well but this one is worth making reservations.

 

Budget:

• Unless you go to a chain like Starbucks you can pretty much expect most places to already be “budget friendly.” You can normally negotiate and food and drink is very little money.

• In Cusco there is a large Jesus statue on a hill similar to the famous Brazilian one. This is FREE. just take a cheap taxi ride up there.

• Buy only the basic Machu Picchu access ticket. You do not need to do Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu mountain to see the beautiful ruins that you see in photos. The basic ticket will allow you to see this.

• Skip the tour guide at Machu Picchu. They negotiate so you can get them for very cheap but you are stuck with them for 2 hours and they talk about TONS of history that very few people are interested in. You can also eavesdrop on other tour guides in Machu Picchu to get the gist.

• For the super budget folks you will actually need to plan MORE time to get to Machu Picchu and you will need to be prepared for hiking. You can take a shared bus type service from Cusco to just outside Aguas Calientes for very cheap. Since it doesn’t take you all the way to Aguas Calientes is requires a hike to complete the journey. You can also skip the bus ride up to Machu Picchu and do an additional hike. This is truly the cheapest way to get there. You still need to purchase an entrance ticket into Machu Picchu though so this is still an expense to consider.

• If you do not like hiking and aren’t on such a tight budget then you can take a bus or a train to Aguas Calientes. You have 2 options here: Train from Poroy (just outside of Cusco) or train from Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo is about halfway so it shortens your train time if you want to get to Machu Picchu early and still manage to get some rest the night before. I suggest this. There are very nice AirBNBs in Ollantaytambo and it’s a nice stop along the way.

• If in Ollantaytambo, you must not miss the hidden street food surely to fit in your budget. Honestly, it’s across the square from where most hotels are located so many tourists wouldn’t even think to walk that directions. We saw it only as our taxi drove past it on our way back to Cusco. We were completely disappointed that we missed it. Its at the Mercado San Pedro around the corner from the Tourist Info building in the square.

 

Shopping:

• Chinchero & Aguas Calientes are probably the last place you should buy things as it will be the most expensive. Ollantaytambo is a small enough town that you can negotiate very low. Just a learning, we got more aggressive with our negotiations as each day so no matter where we ended up, we got SUPER low prices and it was because of us, not because of the location. So keep this in mind. You will think you were ripped off in the previous city but its probably that you weren’t as aggressive.

• Cusco has a mercado, both outdoor and indoor, which has everything you can image. Food, handicrafts, daily necessities. This is worth a stop and a place to negotiate. Watch your wallet and phone though. They look for iphones and they can easily take them from pockets (a friend got hers stolen in line for the bathroom). Also, do not use the bathroom here. You’ll thank me.

 

Downfalls:

• Food flavors. You read it above but I expected more flavor in the dishes.

• Negotiating. I hate negotiating and it pissed me off every time I bought something then found it cheaper at a different market. Be prepared for this.

• Alititude sickness

 

Travel Details:

• 10 days total (Machu Picchu and Ollantaytambo 2 days)

• Dec-Jan

• Personal travel with 5 friends