Aguas Calientes (also known as Machu Picchu Village) is the place where everyone goes in order to visit the famous archeological wonder.
And if you want to spend some time at the site before the throngs of day-trippers arrive by train, you’ll have to spend a night there. It’s a charming little town, and by “charming” I basically mean “hell-hole”.
Maybe that’s too harsh – let me explain:
We booked our tickets to Machu Picchu at the last minute (which isn’t a problem during the off-season), and since I couldn’t decide which hotel to book in advance, I decided we’d just “wing it” when we got there.
I hadn’t counted on the rain – when the train arrived in Aguas Calientes it was pouring, and there were fewer hotel touts than I expected. So, when we were approached by a friendly girl from a hotel I’d at least heard of, we were glad to check it out.
As we trudged several blocks up the hill in the worsening downpour, I decided that unless this place was an utter dump, we would take it. Though a little funky, the place seemed clean enough, so I went downstairs to see what the price would be.
After a little bit of haggling, we settled on a price of 70 Soles – about $22.50 in US Dollars. Wow! That was a lot cheaper than I’d expected.
Of course, I immediately started having serious doubts about the place, but due to the rain and our exhaustion we decided to stay put. After all, it would only be one night…
It was a long night. Our bed was lumpy, the pillows rock-hard, and there was a ton of noise coming from the streets outside, probably from other tourists who didn’t want to sleep in their skanky hotel rooms. I was almost relieved at 5am when the alarm went off.
I think Danielle put it best:
You know, there’s something to be said for a cheap hotel room.
Yeah, and it’s not something good. Oh well, hopefully in whatever funky places we find ourselves staying at in the future, we’ll be able to say, “hey, at least it’s better than Aguas Calientes”.
And hopefully, Machu Picchu will be worth it…
{ 1 comment }
I’d imagine the dump was worth it given what you got to see. Staying tuned, of course.
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