Day 16. Fifth stage of the Salkantay Trek, Machu Picchu

Submitted by maria on Sun, 21/09/2025 - 13:54

Today we visit the archaeological site of Machu Picchu, considered one of the 7 Wonders of the Modern World.

Machu Picchu

How to get to the citadel of Machu Picchu

You have two options: by bus or on foot.

By bus. You can book buses through this link or buy tickets directly here in Aguas Calientes, on Hermanos Ayar Avenue, before the Ruinas Bridge. No advance booking is required. The ticket office is open every day from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. It costs $12 each way for foreigners, and there is no discount if you buy a return ticket.

Machu Picchu

Buses can be caught on Hermanos Ayar Avenue. They leave as soon as they are full and take about thirty minutes to go up or down from the citadel. The first bus leaves at 5.30 am and the last one leaves at 3 pm.

Machu Picchu

Walking. The climb up to Machu Picchu is a well-marked path full of stone steps carved into the rock in the middle of the cloud forest. Distance 10 km, elevation gain 400 metres. We were told that it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to climb, but it took us about an hour from our accommodation.

Machu Picchu

How to get tickets for the citadel of Machu Picchu

Tickets to the citadel of Machu Picchu can be purchased online through this link from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture. We recommend that you book them at least three months in advance, just like your train ticket, especially if you want to do the 3A Realeza + Huayna Picchu circuit, which is the first to sell out.

Another option, which is not recommended, is to buy them directly upon arrival in Aguas Calientes. Every day, 1,000 tickets are available at the Ministry of Culture's Cultural Centre ticket office, located in Machu Picchu Pueblo (Aguas Calientes), between 3:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. Tickets must be purchased in person and you must present your passport.

Due to the recent conflict over the new concession for transport management to Machu Picchu, many people have cancelled their tickets, making it a good opportunity to easily obtain tickets for all circuits.

Machu Picchu

Hire a guide to visit Machu Picchu

We highly recommend hiring a guide. As we didn't have any references, we asked for a contact at the hotel, Milagros, and it cost us 200 soles for the two of us. It was a very good experience. If you would like her contact details, send us a message on Instagram and we'll give them to you.

If you want to go in a group, there are lots of official guides at the entrance to the site. Only official guides are allowed in. If they don't show their authorisation, they won't be allowed access, so they are all official. If you go in a group, you pay less, around 50 or 60 soles per person.

How to visit Machu Picchu

First, you have to choose which circuit you want to do. Not all of them pass by the guardhouse (mythical photo) or climb Huayna Picchu. Keep in mind that more than 4,000 people climb it every day. The Ministry of Culture's official website explains this.

We do recommend hiring a guide.

The archaeological complex has nine entry times, from 6 a.m. every hour until 2 p.m. However, if you want to climb Huayna Picchu, there are only four entry times from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m., as only 400 people are allowed to climb each day.

You are supposed to have a limited time of two hours inside the site, but we stayed longer and there was no problem. However, the circuits are designed to be followed in one direction only and you cannot go back.

Machu Picchu

Today we have to get up early. At 5 am we are already in the hotel dining room for breakfast. The buffet breakfast has everything: cold cuts, bread, cereals, pastries, fruit, juices, coffee and teas.

To complete our Salkantay trek, we have decided to crown it by climbing Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu on foot.

We leave the hotel at around 5.40 am. There are lots of people waiting for the buses.

We have to walk about twenty minutes to the checkpoint located on the bridge. You have to show your passport and ticket.

Machu Picchu

Five minutes later, we begin climbing the stairs through the cloud forest. It rained heavily last night, and fog and humidity envelop everything.

It takes us forty minutes to climb to the entrance to the citadel. There aren't many people walking up.

We queue at the entrance while we wait for our guide, who is coming up by bus.

We bought tickets for the 3A Realeza + Huayna Picchu circuit for $51 per person months ago through the Peruvian Ministry of Culture website.

Instead of Milagros, her husband Carlos, who is also an official guide, came with us.

We entered the site and were surprised to find such thick fog that we couldn't see more than a hundred metres ahead. Carlos told us not to worry, that it would clear up. The truth is that the clouds gave Machu Picchu a very interesting mystical air.

Machu Picchu

We spend almost three hours with Carlos visiting the main points of the citadel, built at an altitude of 2,450 metres. This Inca citadel was built in the 15th century as the residence of Pachacutec. It is said to have been a temporary royal residence where the nobles lived with their court.

To expand their empire, the Incas first built a warehouse, a few kilometres away an inn, and further on a village. They continued this technique and thus expanded.

Machu Picchu

At Machu Picchu, you can see not only the royal quarters, baths and fountains, but also the Temples of the Sun (the sundial) and the Moon.

It is said that it was abandoned when the new Inca king began the construction of another city where he took the entire court.

In the early 19th century, it was a Basque mestizo farmer, Agustín Lizárraga, who first found the remains of the abandoned city, and years later it was the American Hiram Bingham who brought National Geographic to make it known to the world.

From Huayna Picchu

The fog begins to clear and Carlos accompanies us to the entrance point to climb Huayna Picchu, where you have to sign in and out in a book, indicating the time of ascent and descent.

The path to Wayna is narrow and steep, with a 300-metre elevation gain over one kilometre. You have to be careful with the crowds, as there are some points where people tend to congregate.

In 20 minutes we are at the top. The views are breathtaking. The citadel is spectacular. You can also see where we climbed this morning and the last stage of the Salkantay Trek.

Huayna Picchu

At the top of Wayna there is a stone ‘throne’ and a cave. The path down at the top does not coincide with the path up.

We meet a very nice Catalan couple, an aunt and her niece. We chat all the way back until we meet up with our Slovenian and German friends, with whom we go down to Machu Picchu village and have lunch.

We eat lomo saltado and chicharrón, water and Inka Kola at the Sumaq Grill restaurant for 88 soles. The chicharrón is very good.

Train

At 3:20 pm, our train and the Germans' train depart for Poroy, Cuzco. We booked our train tickets months ago with Peru Rail, but you can also book with Inca Rail. These are panoramic trains so you can enjoy the views.

Our experience was not very good. After an hour into the journey, the train stopped, and we spent two hours waiting for the breakdown to be fixed or for another train to tow us. It was unbearably hot, the air conditioning was not working, and they ran out of water. We arrived in Ollantaytambo at 7 pm. From there, they provided buses to Poroy, another hour and a half journey. And from Poroy, we had to take a taxi to our hostel, another half hour.

We arrived in Cuzco exhausted, took a shower and went to bed because tomorrow we are going to the mountain of seven colours.