From Cusco, we got a shared van for 10 soles each, to Ollantaytambo. The ride was beautiful, and took about 1.5 hours. We didn’t leave ourselves time to see the ruins there, but you could see them from the town. There’s some food and shopping at the top of the hill, from the train station.

We bought me a hat as I had already sunburned my part and didn’t want to do further damage in Machu Picchu. We had already purchased our train tickets through PeruRail, and easily found our way to the station and waited for our train.

We enjoyed the sites and our seat mates for the ride to Aguas Calientes. The train took about 2 hours. Once in Aguas Calientes we realized we needed to take another train to Santa Theresa, where we had booked two nights at this incredible jungle lodge. Eco Quechua Lodge. The train was $32 per person, each way, so we decided we’d make it just one night, and then book a hotel in Aguas Calientes for our second night. It’d be much easier to get to Machu Picchu from there anyway.

We enjoyed our one night in the jungle lodge, had a great dinner and even had time to get massages. A nice relaxing way to start the crazy hiking part of the trip.

The next morning it was up at 6am to eat breakfast, take our 30 soles taxi back to the Hydro Electrica train station, and pay another $32 each to get back to Aguas Calientes. We were there in plenty of time to drop our luggage at our new hotel, Hotel Boutique Jaya Machu Picchu, we got a great deal booking last minute, got a fantastic room with an amazing view!

We had talked to two girls on the train to Santa Theresa who had hiked up to Machu Picchu and said they didn’t think it was worth it. Since we already had purchased the tickets here, we had timed entry to hike Montaña Machu Picchu, we got in line to purchase the $24 round trip bus ticket up to Machu Picchu. Looking at the trail of stairs all the way up, we were thankful to have taken the bus.

It was incredible to get your first glimpse of Machu Picchu. Our timed hike window ended at 10am and we arrived just before then. They’ll let you start late but close the top at noon. Stopping to catch our breath and to take a zillion photos, we arrived about 11:45am at the top. It took just over an hour to hike down. At the end of our first day, we’d gone 8.6 miles and 217 floors. WOW! But the views were worth it.

We had purchased a ticket to remain at the site after noon but no one ever asked for it. We realized the next day that had we needed to exit to use the restroom, they wouldn’t have let us back in. So the ticket wasn’t a loss.

Day two, we hiked Huayna Picchu. This hike was shorter but more strenuous. There were even people who turned around and didn’t go to the top. It provides amazing views, and you can see the zig zag route up the mountain that the buses take from Aguas Calientes. At one point, the hike down takes you through a small spot in a rock, out the other side of a cave! After our timed entry morning hike, we checked out the Inca Bridge and then took the bus back to Aguas Calientes to catch our train back to Ollantaytambo.

Visiting Machu Picchu was definitely an epic adventure and the true highlight of our 25th anniversary trip.