Machu Picchu?
 

heading there in July2018.

gonna do it the hard way, and walk up there. i read it takes four days, with camping. and YES! we will be using local porters. (bless them!)

any "been there, dont that" type of advice?

my wife is already planning her workout to get ready. me, i backpack hunt..so the transition is hopefully mild..unless i have to be my wife's "other porter". :(

anyone know anything about high elevation meds?

Was there in 06, took the easy way up...It was a zoo then.... cant imagine what is like now...

The altitude did affect me, but i was a fat effer then, I weigh 40 lbs less now...

You should also try and hit Nazca, for like $60 you can get a plane to really see the lines...

Interesting country

We were there a few years ago. Didn't do the hike, but from my research, it doesn't look strenuous at all. Altitude will be a factor... can you spend a few days in Cusco before starting the hike?

MP is my wife's favorite place on earth. We hiked up to the Sun Gate to view the site, which is where you'll emerge after your 4 day hike. It really is beautiful. Expect quite a few people to fight for elbow space with in July. We went in February when the trail is closed for maintenance and even then, it got real busy after 10 AM or so.

If you're in to ceviche, make sure you explore the scene in Lima. Its awesome. Cusco also has many, many nice restaurants and lots of character. Not to be missed.

Don't spend too much time in Aguas Calientes. Its an awful little town, although the locals are very polite and friendly.

Co-worker just got back. He hoofed it, and he's mid-50's.

Get the ticket/spot to ascend Huayna Picchu. Tough climb but well worth it.

Amazing experience going there for Beth and me. Highly recommended. The whole civilization is fascinating. More to follow...

Lady at work thought the whole thing was a waste of time and money when she did it.

Poor thing.

Ceviche...

I had some great Ceviche, and some Pisco sours at a hotel right on the beach in.... Pisco...

A huge plate of Ceviche and a few cocktails cost around $12... and the hotel I stayed at gave me a room with ocean view for like $60..

Unfortunately I don't have many picture of my Peru trip since my (purchased for the trip) camera broke on the second day.. and I was still in Lima

In Lima go to Calles de la Pizza.... and crack up at everyone using a knife and fork to eat pizza... I did the New York fold and my local companion freaked, telling me that is not how you eat Pizza lol...

There is a Hooters is Lima...:mad:

Peru is interesting.... I will go back

Totally worth it. Hike is not that bad either.

I'm eating a guinea pig for sure.

I heard Lima has three of the best restaurants in the world. I'll leave good clothing at the hotel. Get a fancy guinea pig dish. Hehe.

I hope my boss doesn't poopoo my summer trip like he did this year. I'm pinning him down manana.

My neighbor just came back. She went with a group and every one of them got some type of stomach flu on day 2. She made it up to the top but said it was the worst trip ever.. lol..

You better hope it was a guinea pig!

My daughter did it when she was studying in Buenos Aires as an undergrad. She traveled quite a bit during that semester and had some amazing experiences. Machu Picchu was definitely one of them.

Hey Vash: I can throw my two cents in. I lived in Urubamba for two years which is where the trains leave to MP. Start drinking coca tea (even at the airport) the minute you get there, most people get a serious headache for the first couple of hours from the elevation. You want to spend at least 2 days acclimating (cusco / Urubamba) before you make the trek. Trust me you'll be glad you did. Not so sure about people's comments about the 4 day trek being easy, the first day yes, but the start of the 2nd day you hit the stairway to heaven which looks like its going strait up!
I went last minute with a heavy pack and just about stroked out :) the morning of the 4th day you come upon (looking down) from 9000 to 6000 feet or so to MP and it all becomes worth it. the town itself Aguas Calientes is a nasty little pit.
Try to see (before or after) the town of Ollantaytambo a cab ride south of Urubamba. They have other ruins quite impressive and the town is very cool. The other direction, you can hit the outdoor market in Pisac great Quechua clothes and stuff.

let me know if you have any questions, still have friends down there, one (Riccardo) in Urubamba owns a great restaurant called Tres Keros - I'll let him know you're coming :):)

Machu Picchu? I thought the whole Pokémon thing died out last year.

Dude. He's talking about the physicist. Have some respect.

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A lot of excellent info already posted.
If you'd like to do something more intimate and not deal with crowds arrange a hike on the Lares Trek. No permit required. I've done both and Lares was my preference. Pack lightly and bring toilet paper, meds, flashlight and telescoping poles.
Do not miss Huayna Picchu - you'll need to book it. Also get to the site early and walk up to the Sun Gate as mentioned.

thanks. i just joted this down in my travel notes.

Our son did it four years ago. His travel insurance covered him up to a certain altitude but MP was a bit over this and had he not extended and modified his policy he would not have been covered had he needed to claim. Check the altitude restrictions on you travel insurance.

I'll PM you an old website I put up to share the photos from an amazing trip (started in Bolivia in an eco-lodge in the Amazon basin).

This is the standard view looking down on the site:

http://www.plumley.org/photos/trips/...Images/311.jpg

Huayna Picchu is the peak in the background.

The walls are amazing:

http://www.plumley.org/photos/trips/...Images/259.jpg

After you climb up, up, and up, this is the view back the other way down on the main site:

http://www.plumley.org/photos/trips/...Images/360.jpg
(The access road on the left is for the bus that runs up from the village. It's not able to fit two busses at a time, so someone has to back up :eek:)

It's like being on top of the world:

http://www.plumley.org/photos/trips/...Images/362.jpg
(It's hard to tell from this photo, but I'm standing on a tiny sliver of rock at the very peak.)

http://www.plumley.org/photos/trips/...Images/402.jpg


We took this trip to celebrate 150 years - we both turned 50 and were married for 25.

http://www.plumley.org/photos/trips/...Images/206.jpg

There are so many memories and experiences. We should get together for a beer.

By the same math and logic we will be celebrating 104 years!

We are doing this for our ten year marriage.

And yes to beer! Especially with that roast chicken kung-fu you got going :)

Cuy (guinea pig) is way over rated.... Don't bother..Its usually like an over cooked Rabbit... I went to a few place where it was "the best" and it pretty much sucked balls every time...

Huaca Pucclanna these ruins were discovered in Lima... under a garbage dump.. Miraflores District..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1507077694.jpg



Inca grave on the side of the road.. near Nazca...


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1507077747.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1507077761.jpg


Some a hole in front of Sleeping Inca somewhere on the Carrera Panamericana


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1507078016.jpg


Fishing regulations

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1507078048.jpg

Nice sale to Lima just popped up. No affiliation. Just passing along a good deal.

- MEGA POST: Many US cities to Lima, Peru for only $431 roundtrip

Machu Picchu .. a little history and the Hawaii-born "discoverer":
 

"A story told to some of the early Spanish chroniclers noted a mythical place from which the Incas had come when they started out and to make the beginnings of that great empire which was to embrace a large part of South America.

Thousands of years ago there lived in the highlands of Peru a megalithic folk who developed a remarkable civilization, and who left, as architectural records, such cyclopean structures as the fortresses of Sacsahuaman and Ollantaytambo. These people were attacked by barbarian hordes coming from the south – possibly from the Argentine pampas.

They were defeated, and fled into one of the most inaccessible Andine cañons. Here, in a region strongly defended by nature, they established themselves; here their descendants lived for several centuries. The chief place was called Tampu Tocco.

Eventually regaining their military strength and becoming crowded in this mountainous valley, they left Tampu Tocco, and, under the leadership of three brothers, went out of three windows (or caves) and started for Cuzco.

The migration was slow and deliberate. They eventually reached Cuzco, and there established the Inca kingdom, which through several centuries spread by conquest over the entire plateau, and even as far south as Chile and as far north as Ecuador.

This Inca empire had reached its height when the Spaniards came. The Spaniards were told that Tampu Tocco was at a place called Pacaritampu, a small village a day’s journey southwest of Cuzco and in the Apurimac Valley.

The chroniclers duly noted this location, and it has been taken for granted ever since that Tampu Tocco was at Pacaritampu. (National Geographic, 1913)

Tampu means “tavern,” or “a place of temporary abode.” Tocco means “window.” The legend is distinctly connected with a place of windows, preferably of three windows, from which the three brothers, the heads of three tribes or clans, started out on the campaign that founded the Inca empire.

“So far as I could discover, few travelers have ever taken the trouble to visit Pacaritampu, and no one knew whether there were any buildings with windows, or caves, there.” (Bingham)

Hiram Bingham III was born in Honolulu, on November 19, 1875, the son of missionaries to Micronesia and grandson of Hiram and Sybil Bingham, leader of the Pioneer Company of Missionaries to Hawaii. He completed his studies at Yale, earning a doctorate in Latin American history.

In 1905, Bingham made his first trip to South America, following the route of Simón Bolivar, from Caracas, Venezuela to Bogotá, Colombia. He returned in 1908 and retraced the Spanish trade route from Buenos Aires to Lima.

While in Peru, in February, 1909, he visited Choqquequirau, a recently discovered Inca site that had once been thought to be the last refuge of the Inca rulers after they were defeated by the Spanish explorer, Francisco Pizarro. This visit inspired him with the desire to find the legendary “lost city of the Incas.”

In 1911, Bingham went back to Peru with two goals: to climb Mount Coropuna to see whether it was higher than Mount Aconcagua and to seek out the last capital of the Incas, the almost mystical city of Vilcabamba.

Arriving in Arequipa, in June 1911, he decided that it would not be wise to try to make the climb in winter and instead decided to look for ruins in the valley of the Rio Urubamba. (Encyclopedia)

“In 1911, a young Peruvian boy led an American explorer and Yale historian named Hiram Bingham into the ancient Incan citadel of Machu Picchu. Hidden amidst the breathtaking heights of the Andes, this settlement of temples, tombs and palaces was the Incas’ greatest achievement.”

“Tall, handsome, and sure of his destiny, Bingham believed that Machu Picchu was the Incas’ final refuge, where they fled the Spanish Conquistadors.”

“Bingham made Machu Picchu famous, and his dispatches from the jungle cast him as the swashbuckling hero romanticized today as a true Indiana Jones-like character.” (History)

“Some experts believe that parts of the city, which Bingham named Machu Picchu (Old Peak), are 60 centuries old, which would make it 1,000 years older than ancient Babylon. More recently, if its ruins are interpreted correctly, it was at once an impregnable fortress and a majestic royal capital of an exiled civilization.”

“Built on a saddle between two peaks, Machu Picchu is surrounded by a granite wall, can be entered only by one main gate. Inside is a maze of a thousand ruined houses, temples, palaces, and staircases, all hewn from white granite and dominated by a great granite sundial.”

“In Quechua, language of the sun-worshipping Incas and their present-day descendants, the dial was known as Intihuatana—hitching post of the sun.” (Time)

Four different plaques commemorate the ‘find.’ Two plaques attached to a rock face near the entrance to Machu Picchu pay tribute to Hiram Bingham and his “discovery” of Machu Picchu.

The first plaque was erected in October, 1948, by the Rotary Club of Cusco. It reads (in Spanish): “Cusco is grateful to Hiram Bingham, scientific discoverer of Machu Picchu in 1911.” The second was put in place in 1961. It reads (also in Spanish): “Tribute to Hiram Bingham on the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu.”

The second was put in place in 1961. It reads (also in Spanish): “Tribute to Hiram Bingham on the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu.”

A third bronze plaque marks the 75th anniversary of the “scientific discovery” of Machu Picchu. It doesn’t mention Hiram Bingham, nor does it mention anyone else, apart from a reference to the “sons of Inti” who built Machu Picchu (Inti being the Inca sun god).

In 1993, Peru’s National Institute of Culture decided it was time to pay tribute to the locals who helped Hiram Bingham find his way to Machu Picchu. The sign reads: “The National Institute of Culture Cusco pays homage to Melchor Arteaga, Richarte and Álvarez who lived in Machu Picchu before Hiran [sic] Bingham.” (Atlas Obscura)

Melchor Arteaga was instrumental in Bingham’s expedition to Machu Picchu. A local farmer living at Mandor Pampa near Aguas Calientes, Arteaga knew the location of Machu Picchu and showed Bingham the way.

The other two names, Richarte and Álvarez, refer to two men and their families who lived up near Machu Picchu and still farmed on its lower terraces when Bingham arrived.

Bingham and Arteaga met Toribio Richarte and Anacleto Álvarez on their tough trek up the steep, jungle covered mountain. It was Anacleto’s son, Pablo, who on July 24, 1911 guided Bingham along the last leg of the trek, into the heart of Machu Picchu. (Atlas Obscura)"

Machu Picchu Commemorations | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

We were there in May 2016. We did not trek to MP but did a ton of day hikes everywhere. All the Inca trails are stone so take really good boots with quality soles. I used lightweight trail runners and my feet suffered with bruised pads. We did take the trail down from MP to Aguas Calientes and that was like doing the Grand Canyon. I was pretty wrecked at the bottom and I hike 10k peaks in CA a lot.

We chose to go with Gate 1 tours instead of doing our own trip. Well organized including all travel, 4 Star hotels, and 1/2 our meals. Plenty of "alone time" away from the main tour group. I think it was $1500 PP all-in from LA which was about 1/2 if we planned it ourselves. This worked well for us. 10 days including Lima, Cusco, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Puno, then back to Lima and home.

This looks like the package tour we took:
https://www.gate1travel.com/specials/travelzoo/peru-miami.aspx

Stuff I liked:
The people are friendly and joyful,
the ancient art, pottery, and master stone work.
Our hotels were all nice and very clean,
the food was fresh and hearty.
Traditional Andes clothing and customs

Stuff I didn't like:
Cuy (guinea pig) is all bones and very little meat. It is like eating a rat.

Pickpockets are everywhere and we heard a lot of stories from folks who lost wallets, cameras, purses, daypacks, and jewelry. We were never robbed and we did notice our Gate 1 guide *tipped* a security guard in the marketplace to keep the thieves away from our group. Keep your stuff close and tethered to you.

12,500' at Puno and Titicaca was tough to sleep and some in our group got severe altitude sickness. I was ok but never felt great. Much better at 9000' in the Sacred Valley.
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