Travel time by train from Cusco to Aguas Caliente, a town at the foot of Machu Picchu, is four hours, plus a 25-minute bus ride from Cusco to the station.
The railway track follows the river through the valley. The steep and commanding slopes of the Andes rise on both sides, and I can't help but feel mere and mortal.
Many backpackers do the four-day hike along the Inca trail to Aguas Caliente, and sometimes we can see them on the narrow track carved into the valley wall on the other side of the river. One side of the trail is a sheer drop into the white waters of the river below.
Above them - and for that matter, those of us in the train - are mountain slopes that are inclined to mud slides in wet weather.
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| Our train |
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| Aguas Caliente repairing damage from mudslides in 2010 |
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| Our hotel in Aguas Caliente |
Amazingly, you walk across the railway track to the hotel entrance. You look both ways first.
It reminds me of a song from my youth, and it goes like this:
The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The railroad comes through the middle of the house
The trains all come through the middle of the house
Since the company bought the land
They let us live in the front of the house
They let us live in the back
But there ain't no livin' in the middle of the house
'Cause that's the railroad track
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| The railway shares the entrance to the hotel lobby. |
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| Aguas Caliente residents |
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| Our hotel cottage |
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| Hotel garden |
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| Hotel orchid |
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| Hotel banana to feed the birds |
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