Arrival by Machu Picchu Train

I got on the Machu Picchu Train at Ollantaytambo. The train follows the Urubamba river downstream to the small town of Aguas Calientes, a set of hotels, restaurants, and souvenier shacks to support Machu Picchu. The train actually starts in Cusco and makes several stops along its journey.

The trainride down the meandering slopes along the Urubamba River towards Aguas Calientes. We left from Ollantaytambo and it took about 1.5 hours. It is a beautiful journey with a few stops for backpackers and a few ruins to see along the way.

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The train follows the Urubamba River. There are stretches (not shown here, though) where it parallels the Inca Trail and you can see the backpackers.

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$The tiny tourist town of Aguas Calientes, at the base of Machu Picchu. The train actually stops in the station outside of town, so it no longer regularly travels on the tracks through its center. There are plenty of decent hotels and restaurants. And of course no square inch of Peru is safe from vendors selling souveneirs.\n\nOur hotel was to the right of the restaurants in this picture, and beyond that was the road that lead the busses to the top of Machu Picchu. The bus ride was $6 round trip (one-way purchase available if you wanted to hike up or down). At the top admission was $20 for the day.$

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