Bussing it with the locals - Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu

Rather than book a tour to the Sacred Valley or Machu Picchu, we decided to travel there independently; save some dollars, avoid some of the tourist hordes and have a bit more of a 'local' experience! We took the bouncy and rather stinky local buses, (complete with suspicious wet patches on the seats!) to the Sacred Valley as part of the 'Tom and Claire Macchu Pichu pilgrimage'. The S-V is as important, if not more important than M-P as it is considered the heartland of the Inca Empire due to its rich resources.




Pisac was our first stop where we visited the market and grabbed some food before jumping back on the bus and headed to Ollantaytumbo - known by many as 'Ollanta' due to its tongue twister name.... we still can't pronounce it!




We set up camp in Ollanta, (in the grounds of a youth hostel) and caused a bit of a stir with a Peruvian school group as they could not comprehend why we would be camping. They then proceeded to keep us up most of the night with their teenage screaming, oh the joys!



Ollanta is a stunning town, situated in a valley surrounded by mountains, with Inca ruins clinging to the cliff-sides. Completely under-rated in our opinion. Due to funds, unfortunately we had to skip the visit to the main ruins in this town (everything in the surrounds of Cusco costs a fortune, well particularly for backpackers!) However we did venture up the free ruins in town, totally void of tourists and stunning in their own right. What we found interesting here, is that upon searching for information about the 'why's' and 'how's' of the ruins, you rarely come across much. After the Spanish invasion in the 1500's, many of the artifacts were destroyed and details of the history are short and non-descript. However, what we do know about this area is that Ollanta was one of the only places in Peru where the Incas beat the Spaniards and the ruins remain relatively in-tact.






From Ollanta, we caught the train to Aguas Caliente (the town at the foot of the mountain where Machu Picchu resides). It was the poshest train that I have ever been on - complete with food service, fancy windows in the roof and non-stop service from the staff aboard - we even got treated to a 'performance' and Inca fashion show!! Not quite how we imagined the journey to Machu Picchu, we felt more like senior citzens than backpackers, however as we had a lack of options it was nice to have a little luxury for 2 hours!



Aguas Caliente is a bizarre place - it's only 2000m above sea level so has a jungle/tropical feel and is quite ridiculously touristy and expensive. We spent one night here before waking at 4am the next day for the bus to Machu Picchu in the hope of avoiding as many crowds as possible. Upon awakening we were welcomed by a humongous storm - the rain was pelting down. However, due to time restrictions, we could not wait another day so had to head out in the pouring rain and pitch black in the hope that the clouds lifted by sunrise. We picked up ponchos from an enterprising local and hit the mountain. Despite the early hour and terrible weather, there were still plenty of people scattered across the ruins in a sea of multi-coloured ponchos.






We managed to get on the list to climb Huayna Picchu (the big mountain behind the Machu Picchu ruins) a pleasant if not knee jerking 400m walk up steps from Machu Picchu. Totally recommended.



A combination of altitude and copious amounts of rain, had the effect of making us go a little loopy - Tom doing his blue steel impression decked out in a poncho. Styling!