On Thursday, May 29 we took the midday train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes. The train ride was really interesting because we drove through different clima zones form over 2.750m down to 2.100m at Aguas Calientes. As we arrived there we have been quite surprised of the train station - it was in the middle of the town and people were sitting close to the rails in restaurants.
After we have found our hostal we walked through the town and went into a Pizza restaurant. At this restaurant I got a couple of bad bites of sand flies which went out really big the other morning. After the Pizza we arranged the bus ride (12 $US) and the entrance tickets (122 Sol) for Machu Picchu the next day.
On Friday morning we got up at 4:30am to be one of the first at Machu Picchu (2.500m) but unfortunately some other had the same idea and we got up there with bus No. 18 and still had to wait for the entrance at the main gate until 7am like almost 500 other people, too. As soon as we went in we walked straight to the Wayna Picchu (3.140m) to be able to climb it as one of the first 400 people. From up there we had an unbelievable view over the whole area and we really enjoyed the time up there and walked around the mountain to the caves of the moon and back to the entrance of Machu Picchu. After that we walked to the Intipunku (Sungate, the end of the Inkatrail) and back to Machu Picchu to enjoy the sunset there.
Macchu Picchi is really a must see but the nepp there for the tourist is quite bad e.g. you have to pay for the train ride at least 62 US$ (Backpacker) and the entrance was 122 Sol. and the bus tickets 12 $US.
On the last day at Aguas Calientes we walked to the valley Mandor a nice small valley with a beautiful nature and there we saw how the pineapples and the bananas grow. After this hike we enjoyed an hour at the hot springs and drove back with the train to Cusco where we met a nice mexican guy.