One things for sure: it is trek to get out to Machu Picchu! But for us it wasn't the Inca trail, it was three flights, a taxi, a train, and a bus. All with a baby! The train from the sacred valley to Aguas Calientes was great, big windows all over the place allowed us to see the mountains so well. The Andes are so steep, they seemed to tower over the train instead of seeming off in the distance. It was a beautiful ride, and what made it better was we were served local food on our way!
Aguas Calientes was a great town. We had some great food there. The Lomo Saltado that I had was fantastic, a definite 10/10. I definitely bought two too many Peruvian sweaters (2), but Emre's was really cute!
When you look at people's pictures of Machu Picchu, they are always so chill, people lying down admiring the view, kicked back on the grass or something. Well when you go with a one year old it is a little more stressful! We let Emre walk sound as he had been cooped up in his baby carrier for a while and he was so happy to be running around. The only problem was that there are loads of drops and cliffs everywhere, so we had to be alert and run around with him. It was so fun though. The clouds were rolling over the place all the time as it was threatening to rain the whole time, which made for beautiful views. We went to see the llamas which Emre also loved. It was cool to think about how the people built the place so many years ago. Their stone work was really quite impressive!
It was a great experience to walk around the ancient city of Machu Picchu. It was just so crazy, an amazing and really quite huge city built at the top of an incredibly steep and not easily accessible mountain. I guess that was the point though! After taking the bus up, we decided to walk down. I had Emre on my back which was a challenge, but it was a fun hike down. We got caught in the rain. It chucked it down and we were soaked. It was nice to get back to our hostel, which had a huge window that faced the river, with a mountain towering on the other side. It was really beautiful. The sound of the river rushing past was also quite impressive.
On our way back to Cusco, we had to get off the train in Ollantaytambo, which is where the bus picked us up. Before getting on the bus, we walked around the town for a few hours. A few days earlier someone told us that there was nothing to see in Ollantaytambo, but it was really cool, a sleepy town with lots of culture. We walked around alleyways and ate in a little restaurant while Emre slept on the couch seating next to us. The mountains surrounded the town and looked immense! As I'm writing this I'm not sure what to say about the town, there wasn't anything in particular that made it great, but it was a really special place. We really felt like we were in the middle of South America (which we were!).
Cusco itself was great. We were there for a few nights and walked around the town quite a bit. We didn't really notice the altitude that much, apart from one night when I ran out to grab some food. I ran about a mile and when it was over I felt like I'd ran two or three.
The town square was really nice, very large and the buildings were really beautiful. We went on a tour bus around the town, which was alright, wouldn't do it again but it was fine. We had some great food and some not so great food, one Lomo Saltado pie that made the first few days in Chile quite challenging!
