Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [222]
Information
The ruins are most heavily visited between 10am and 2pm, and June to August are the busiest months. Plan your visit early or late in the day to avoid the worst of the crowds. A visit early in the morning midweek during the rainy season guarantees you more room to breathe, especially during February, when the Inca Trail is closed.
It’s well worth buying entrance tickets for the Machu Picchu historical sanctuary (adult/student S124/62; 6am-5pm) in advance, at the Machu Picchu ticket office (Edificio del Instituto Nacional de Cultura, Pachacutec s/n; 5am-10pm) in Aguas Calientes, to avoid long line-up times and possible hassles getting change at the overstretched ticket office at the site.
You are not allowed to bring walking sticks or backpacks of over 20L capacity into the ruins – they have to be checked in at one of the two luggage-storage offices. The one outside the entrance gate ruins costs S5 per item and the one inside costs S3; there’s no difference in service.
Local guides are readily available for hire at the entrance. They are generally not the cream of the crop and you are better off hiring a guide in Cuzco (Click here for some recommended guides). If you do decide to hire a guide here, make sure to agree upon a price in advance, clarify whether it’s per person or covers the whole group, and agree how long the tour will be and the maximum group size.
The information and map provided in this book should be enough for a self-guided tour. For really in-depth explorations, take along a copy of Exploring Cuzco by Peter Frost.
Dangers & Annoyances
Inside the ruins, do not walk on any of the walls – this loosens the stonework and prompts an cacophony of whistle blowing from the guards. Trying to spend the night here is also illegal, and guards do a thorough check of the site before it closes. Food at the cafe just outside the gate is even more overpriced than you’d expect, but eating in the site is forbidden – if you bring your own food, eat it outside the gate. Disposable plastic bottles are also forbidden -the only way to get water in is in camping-type drink bottles. Water is sold at the cafe just outside the entrance, but only in glass bottles.
Use of the only toilet facilities, just below the cafe, will set you back S1.
Tiny sand fly–like bugs abound. You won’t notice them biting while it’s happening, but you’ll know all about it for the next swollen, itchy week. Use insect repellent.
The weather at Machu Picchu seems to have only two settings: heavy rain or bright, burning sunlight. Don’t forget rain gear and, even more importantly, sunblock.
Sights & Activities
Don’t miss the Museo de Sitio Manuel Chávez Ballón (Click here) by Puente Ruinas at the base of the climb to Machu Picchu. Buses headed back from the ruins to Aguas Calientes will stop upon request at the bridge, and from here it’s less than a half-hour’s walk back to town.
INSIDE THE RUINS
Unless you arrive via the Inca Trail, you’ll officially enter the ruins through a ticket gate on the south side of Machu Picchu. About 100m of footpath brings you to the mazelike main entrance of Machu Picchu proper, where the ruins lie stretched out before you, roughly divided into two areas separated by a series of plazas.
To get a visual fix of the whole site and snap the classic postcard photograph, climb the zigzagging staircase on the left immediately after entering the complex, which leads to a hut. Known as the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock, it is one of a few buildings that has been restored with a thatched roof, making it a good shelter in the case of rain. The Inca Trail enters the city just below this hut. The carved rock behind the hut may have been used to mummify the nobility, hence the hut’s name.
If you continue straight into the ruins instead of climbing to the hut, you pass through extensive terracing to a beautiful series of 16 connected ceremonial baths that cascade across the ruins, accompanied by a flight of stairs.
Just above and to the left