Straightfoward Instructions For Travelers: Machu Picchu

Hey guys, quick disclaimer, the information below is correct to the best of my knowledge as of March 21, 2014. If something changes, it won't be this blog. So check yo sh*t before traveling.

Hellllooooo...some time ago I created a blog post explaining, with certainty, how a traveler can hike the W in the Chilean Patagonia. Continuing in that theme, I wanted to post here directions for getting to Machu Picchu via planes, trains, and automobiles well, buses, and NOT the Inca Trail, which I would highly recommend though I have yet to participate in said endeavor.

Well, without further delay...

• Fly into Cuzco. Depending on where you are flying from you might have to fly through somewhere else, maybe Lima
• Take the train to Aguas Calientes. Make sure to ask for a seat with the river view, it’s worth it
• If you can/get there early enough, go straight to the park, otherwise stay a night
• To actually get to Machu Picchu from Agaus Calientes, you can take a bus OR walk it. 
• If you walk it, you take the stairs. They are not continuous. Of course the road that has been built for automobiles to take you to Machu Picchu is just a series of switchbacks. The walking route takes you straight up and across these switchbacks. So you take a set of steps and you reach the road again where it levels off. You take another set of steps, lather, rinse, repeat. I'd say it probably takes 1.5-2 hours to walk it, but I've never done it. I could be totally wrong. And, dude, it's walking. Up hill and up steps. Yeesh. AND BE CAREFUL. There are buses coming up and down the road all the time. So stay on the sides of the road, you nitwit.
• OR you can take the bus. Not sure how expensive it is, but it's not expensive. If you are coming in one day and going the next, buy tickets at the bus station the day before (I'm pretty sure this is possible). You can take the bus at 6 AM but the office selling the tickets opens at the same time, so if you don't want to waste your time if the buses are full OR you miss the first bus, buy the tickets the night before. Also, you should be able to walk to the bus station. Aguas Calientes is not a big town.
• To enter Machu Picchu, YOU MUST BUY TICKETS BEFOREHAND. You cannot buy them at the entrance. And you can buy them here, at the official site. I am pretty sure you can't buy tickets anywhere else but at this site. So if you find another site, cuidate. And the Peruvian government only sells a certain number of tickets for each day. They don't want the ruins getting, well, ruined. Too much traffic is bad for it, of course.
• There are 3 different tickets you can buy:
• One ticket is solely for Machu Picchu
• One ticket is for Machu Picchu + Huaynapicchu (for the English speakers, it kind of sounds like "Wayne uh Picchu". <-- DO THIS ONE. Huaynapicchu means "young mountain" or "young persons' mountain". It takes maybe 45-60 minutes to hike but, with a clear day, it gives you a spectacular view from above of Machu Picchu. And even without a clear day, the clouds still provide a fantastic view.
• Finally there is a ticket for Machu Picchu + Machu Mountain. I hear this is less traveled than Huaynapicchu but still great. It's your call.
• When you're there, just in regular ole Machu Picchu, walk to the Sun Gate. It takes like, an hour maybe? Maybe 1.5 hours? Who cares, just freaking do it. It's so worth it. It's where the Inca Trail actually ends and brings you into Machu Picchu but you can walk from the other side. The view is spectacular.
• You can do an entire visit in one day, but, of course, stay longer if you want. Then just do the reverse of the above trip to get you back to Cuzco.

And just for a little photo-y goodness...

The Linux Half-Life

 

So, let me get this out of this way up front: I know I have titled this post "The Linux Half-Life" but the logo above is for Ubuntu, a flavor a Linux, and one of the most popular among those. See that? I've already demonstrated I understand the difference between the two. Why did I choose the Ubuntu logo? Well, for one reason, see below, but also, I was afraid if I just put up a picture of Tux, the mascot of Linux which is a penguin, I was afraid everyone would just be like "Aw, cute penguin!" and move on. Also, I like Ubuntu. I've used it, installed, I probably even ran it off a USB key and/or maybe used it compile the Linux kernel. Who knows, I can't remember it all. It certainly is the flavor of Linux I've used more than any other, and certainly the kind I like the most. What's it called? "Linux for beginners" or "Linux for humans"? Might as well be "Linux for dummies" but I don't mean that in a bad way.

Typically, hostels in South America offer one or multiple computers for their guests to use. You know, to do whatever, but let's hope it's not to watch porn. "There are people around!" "It's a free country!" "Whatever." The computers are generally POS's, but not always. They're keyboards, mice, towers (the actually computer itself, it's sometimes referred to as a tower, as I am doing so here), and monitors usually don't match. The monitor will be black and the tower will be white, or vice versa, or match, or whatever. It is quite apparent these arrangements have been cobbled together at the least expense. Which makes sense. It's a hostel. Hostels, by their nature, are cheap. That's the point. You're supposed to have a bed, a shower, maybe a breakfast, and possibly some directions around town. That's it. You're not entitled to a computer. It's a privelege, not a right.*

What I found peculiar, the reason for this post as it were, was the number of computers running Linux, specifically Ubuntu. Well, fair enough, I think maybe there was only two computers at the same hostel that maybe (I didn't check) were running Linux that wasn't Ubuntu. I didn't know that any "normal" people knew anything about Linux or Ubuntu, so to find it on computers at hostels in South America was surprising. But at the same turn, it wasn't. These computers were budget computers. Ubuntu, on the other hand, is free. Download, install, hope that Intel, AMD, and whomever else has made the proper drivers (more common with older hardware) for your hardware. And then never upgrade if it works, lest you risk breaking something and then force yourself to downgrade or wade through the aftermath and fix the error in your current Linux version. Your call.

Yes, I did find computers running Windows, such as XP or 7 (don't think I ran across anything other than these 2), and absolutely no Macs. Too expensive or a theft target, I'm sure. I did one time find a Linux distro (nerd-speak for distribution. A distribution, by the way, is the same thing as what I've called here a "flavor", or particular version of Linux) that had changed the desktop appearance to look like Windows. Ha! Wasn't fooling anyone, the PC was a POS. In one hostel where I find very nice computers, I saw a particularly creative solution for making sure people didn't use them too long (in place of badgering people with "Are you gonna be done soon?" in various languages): the hostel mounted the monitors to the wall and put the keyboard so high you could only stand. And of course they didn't put any chairs there. So you'd get tired of standing there pretty quickly. Get in, check your e-mail, Facebook, upload photos, etc, and get out of there. That was the idea.

Well, that's pretty much it. Linux is way more popular, i.e., it exists at all in South America, which was surprising and more or less clever. People trying to save money and Ubuntu doesn't offer a bad desktop experience. Good job, SA.

*By the way, I hate this phrase. It's overused in American politics. Shut up, already.

P.S. And just for fun, here's a couple images of Tux.