I stepped off the Machu Picchu train after an hour and a half scenic ride through the Andes leading from the small town of Ollantaytambo arriving at an even smaller town along with hundreds of other travelers. The train was packed and everyone crowded the platforms not sure where to go, little did they know there really wasn’t much of a choice. There was only one way out into the town of Aguas Calientes itself, and once I erupted from the station I couldn’t help but gawk at the strange little town perched high in the mountains of Peru. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that began my visit to Aguas Calientes or Machu Picchu Town – one of the strangest little towns in the world.
Aguas Calientes, which means Hot Waters in Spanish, is nowadays most often referred to as Machu Picchu Pueblo or Machu Picchu Town. It began life early in the 20th century when the railroad was constructed through the mountains. Just 68 miles from Cuzco, it still seems like a world away from anything and that certainly must have been the case in 1901 when it was little more than a tented railroad camp for workers. It wasn’t until the 1970s though when things really took off in town as tourists started arriving, all wanting to visit one place – Machu Picchu, located just a few miles away. It was the ideal point from which to visit this now UNESCO World Heritage listed site and almost overnight the scores of tourists led to the development of hotels, restaurants, bars, shops and everything else that a good tourist needs. Domestic terrorism in the 1980s, which was rampant throughout Peru, retarded growth but once Shining Path was dealt with, tourism once again began in earnest in the 1990s and onward. Today more than 1,500 tourists arrive by train every day and the village exists solely for tourism; quiet streams turned into plazas and seemingly every square inch of hillside transformed into a shop or restaurant. It’s because of these odd growth spurts I think that I found it so very strange, but intriguing at the same time.
The town isn’t a big one and is built into the surrounding hillside. Running through the middle of Aguas Calientes are train tracks, a perfect metaphor since the train really is the lifeblood of this community. The town produces nothing, so everything is shipped in via train and every visitor, whether it’s someone just there for the day or hikers finishing up the 4-day experience known as the Inca Trail, everyone will spend at least a little time in town. So what is there to do exactly? Not a lot to be honest, but then again there really doesn’t have to be. This isn’t a place where many people spend more than 1-2 days. There’s nothing to do around the town and Machu Picchu really only takes one day to explore. People arrive by train, spend the night, tour Machu Picchu and then leave again by the same train. That means Aguas Calientes has a limited time frame during which the residents have to grab the attention of the tourists and make their sales before the tourists once again leave for the safe and warm embrace of civilization. And based on my own exploration of the town, this has been turned into an art form.
Labyrinthine
Aguas Calientes may not be big, but it’s confusing as hell. Probably not by design but rather a function of the town’s growth spurts, for the first time visitor (which is everyone) trying to apply order and reason to the streets and alleys is at first a challenge. A series of bridges connect both sides of the town, each of which features scores of shops and restaurants in nearly every size and style. Small side streets suddenly lead into local markets, which somehow morph into promenades with yet even more stores and places to eat. It’s just an endless array truly of restaurants, convenience stores and massage parlors. Taking advantage of the fact that hikers will be sore and tired, the parlors offer much-needed rubdowns at reasonable rates. But if you’re not in the mood for a massage, then there really aren’t a lot of other options for entertainment.
Note about restaurants
Not unlike the main tourist areas in Cuzco, most of the restaurants in Aguas Calientes are carbon copies of each other; each offering the same generic tourist menu. The major difference between Aguas Calientes and Cuzco though are the prices. Because everything has to be shipped in and because they have a very captive audience, prices for everything in Aguas Calientes will be the highest you’ll find anywhere during your trip around Peru – in some cases double. The same goes for items in shops and conveniences stores, from bottles of water to snacks. There are a few exceptions to the generic restaurants and cafes though, including a French bakery I found while trying to get unlost one afternoon. La Boulangerie de Paris is a welcome deviation from the norm in Aguas Calientes and while the prices for their coffees and desserts are absurdly high, they are well worth it. After suffering through horrible hotel coffee, it was nice to spend some time enjoying a hot beverage along with a surprisingly well done chocolate croissant, all the while roaming the internet on the café’s free WiFi. It was a calm moment in an otherwise confusing town.
What to do that’s not Machu Picchu
Aguas Calientes exists for one reason and one reason only, to cater to those tourists visiting the legendary site of Machu Picchu. But there is (a little) more to the town than catching those shuttle buses up to the Inca site. It’s called Hot Waters for a reason, and most visitors to the town will spend some time soaking in the warm natural waters for which it is named. About a ten-minute walk up the mountain from the center of town, the hot springs facility isn’t fancy, but it doesn’t have to be in order to soothe the aching muscles of hikers who completed the Inca Trail. For just a couple of bucks you can soak in the curative waters of the springs in an open-air facility with the amazing Andes as backdrop. By far the most popular in-town activity, that’s probably because it’s also the only in-town activity, but a nice rite of passage for those who visit.
More interesting, to me at least, was touring the Machu Picchu Museum that no one visits. What visitors to the actual site of Machu Picchu itself may notice is that there’s no interpretation of the site. At many world famous destinations, there’s something explaining to people what it is exactly they’re seeing and visiting. Not so at Machu Picchu, but there is a small museum that details the use and function of Machu Picchu, how it was re-discovered and how it is preserved today. It’s the museum that every visitor should spend some time in, but the problem is that almost no one knows about it. That’s because the Museo de Sitio Manuel Chavez Ballon or Machu Picchu Site Museum, isn’t actually at Machu Picchu itself. It’s not in the town of Aguas Calientes either. It’s in a hard to reach no man’s land ensuring that only a few intrepid travelers like myself will ever visit.
The museum’s location a mile away from the city center doesn’t sound inconvenient at first, but you need to also understand how people get around in this weird place. Everyone is there to see Machu Picchu and if they aren’t hiking, then they take the buses up the mountain to the main site. The buses don’t stop anywhere; they merely convey people from the town to the UNESCO site and back. In town there aren’t cabs (no need really since it’s all a pedestrian zone) and really the only way to explore Aguas Calientes is by foot. So, on the off chance you ever do want to leave then your two feet are the only option. Knowing all this, I decided to visit the museum before leaving town, curious more than anything else. The walk along the main road took about 25 minutes or so, past hotels, campgrounds, a butterfly sanctuary and even botanical gardens, all perched along the beautiful river that flows through the mountains. A nice walk, it was interesting to see things from a different point of view and it made finally arriving at the museum in the jungle seem like a well-earned prize. And you know what? It was the best-run museum I visited in Peru. Modern, well curated and interesting – it may be a little small, but it shares information about Machu Picchu that is oddly enough lacking at Machu Picchu itself. I personally think every visitor to the site should incorporate a museum visit, but its odd location means that only a few visit every day.
Overall
No one really wants to go to Aguas Calientes, not really. It’s not a destination in its own right, it doesn’t have postcards and few reflect fondly on their time spent there. But that’s not to say it’s not a special place, I think it is. There are few places in the world teeming with as much excitement and anticipation as does Aguas Calientes. Everyone is there for one reason and one reason only – to finally tick an item off of their bucket list and visit the legendary site of Machu Picchu. For many, myself included, it’s a special moment and one that all who visit will remember until the end of their days. So while few may want to spend time in Machu Picchu Town, what little time they do spend there is special and will hopefully be recollected with as much fondness, if not some smirks and laughs, as their adventures in and around Machu Picchu itself.
We were amazed by the train running right through the middle of the main part of town. We always refer to it as the “town with no road.” But we were glad to get there and a real bed after hiking to Machu Picchu.
Very cool, thanks
Seriously, spend a little time as possible in Aguas Calientes. The hot springs are dirty, the food is overpriced (always ask for the local menu, generally much cheaper than the original menu), and it is just pretty much a tourist trap of a town.
It’s been a really long time since I was in Aguas Calientes, but I had a good experience there and remember it fondly. Had excellent wood fired pizza and met the nicest people. Looks like it has grown quite a bit, it was also crazy cheap when I was there.
Really good write up. Gives me a good sense of the town
Thanks for the write up! Will definitely do my best to get to the museum while I am there.
Will be in area October 2016, traveling with a Peruvian friend I meet last year. I will take in the museum – thank you for telling us about this.
Headed there in June 2017. Thanks for the information and introduction to the town…will definitely do the museum!!
Teresia. I am going in June 2017 as well with a friend. Maybe I’ll see you there.
I stayed there overnight in 1988. Perhaps it wasn’t quite as commercialized then (though there were certainly souvenirs being sold). In any case, I got to see a different side of the town. I was befriended by a young boy, about 10 or 11 years old, who showed me around some of the back areas of the town. There was a large TV tower connected to a small building with a TV in it. Three or four other kids were trying to play baseball with a stick for a bat and, if I remember right, some balled up socks for a ball. I asked how they knew about baseball and they said they had seen it on the community TV. I gave them a little baseball lesson. That night was the a festival for the town’s saint day. I had some chicha beer. There were fireworks going off nearby and every time one went off the woman serving the beer joked “Sendero Luminoso” with a wicked grin on her face. She knew that I knew she was joking, and we both got a kick out of it, all the more so with each mug of beer.
I was there in 1980 just month before Sendero Luminoso began. Aguas Calientes was a small railway station with a restaurant or two, lost American writer and two houses on the hill side and some storage on the river side without any road. Pool 3×4 m with hot water was in the jungle and after days on Inca trail good relax spot.
I second this. In 1979 I arrived at Aguas Calientes after exhausting myself on the Incan Trail. There were two hostals, bare bones stuff. I slept in a room with 8 others. The thermal bath was a small stone-contained rectangle open to the stars under a towering rock face. Aguas Calientes as it exists now had to be built under the dictum …”If they come it will be built.” Crazy nice and tourist snug as it is, I embrace the new just as I gloried in the old rugged freedom 40 years ago. Of course it is expensive – you couldn’t beat us away from Machu Pichu. It is far too beautiful.
The comments have enthused me. I will definitely take a packed lunch & provisions
Thanks for your comments Matt. Good info and well written :-)
Thank you for your write up, it is well written and I also enjoy reading other comments. I am doing a project for a class and this proves that “services” are needed in this small community for education for children and the people need help to learn to live off the land by planting vegetables to save on some costs for their restaurants.
I like the attitude and the way you see things when travelling. and i love the way you write ????
Thanks!
Going in Sept with some girlfriends, do you have any suggestions about the hot springs in Aguascalientes Caliente?
Hi Matt, Thanks for the info. I see the article was written 2 years ago. I am going to Peru and visting Machu Picchu early October. I have found that from July 2017 you can only visit for a half day, even if climbing Huana Picchu, which we are, so really not left with a lot of time. The trains don’t see mt arrive early enough from a couple of the destinations so we were thinking maybe for the night before the Machu Picchu visit we actually just stay in Aguas Calientes
Hi Garry
I am intrigued if your visit to MP went as planned. I also don’t want to visit unless I climb Huana Picchu but I am finding no group travel that actually has time to accomplish that feat. Did you do independent travel and did you actually stay in AC to hike up for the early morning access to HP
Thanks for the valuable information and the breathtaking pictures.
Matt, your review was intriguing. I was not certain until the end whether or not I should take a friend’s advice and arrive late and leave early. But now I look forward to a walk to the museum, the sights along the way and the visit itself. Thank you for painting a beautiful picture and photos of this literal hole in the wall (mountain).
Matt,
Thank you so much for the great review and information provided!!!
Hey all, I am currently in the small town of Machu Picchu pueblo…I spent 4 days here and while it is small,it’s very nice …..the crowds are gone all day (save the morning and evening) I am using this as a base and traveling to ollytaytambo,etc.I recommend a solid half day here and more won’t hurt. Also , do not miss the ruins at ollytaytambo and moray , happy travels :)
Thank you for this! I would also love to visit the museum >> if really it is a 25 minute walk (I’m a small girl, so I’m afraid it’ll take me more ;) but if it means passing through hotels, campgrounds and butterfly sanctuaries then I think I can manage. hopefully. And you said they got wifi! So that’s a relief because I work online. Thank you again so much!
having been to agua calientes a few months ago, i would say this review is spot on.
I traveled to Machu Picchu in 1978 and stayed in Aguas Calientes for four days. Back then we hiked up and down to MP every day waiting for my friends to complete their hike. I came back last year, 2018, almost 40 yrs to date. The respect I received for coming back was over the top. One long time resident at AC told me this was my home and would always be. I’m writing because you seemed to think no one would go back…I did! And I’d go back again. Overall, I’ve spent about two weeks at Machu Picchu and/or on the Inka Trail. One of the most spiritual and amazing places in the world. I hope you make it back, hang out at Aguas Calientes and just enjoy the energy of that wonderfully strange little town!
Thank you Kristi,
You have described what I am looking for. I wish I had visited 4o years ago, when I would have been in shape for hiking the Inka Trail! I will be in AC and visiting MP this month with a group tour, and will be assessing if a return trip that includes hiking the Inka Trail is realistic for me.
Thanks for Your article , it’s very helpful.
I’m a first generation American with deep family roots in Cusco on my fathers side. I visited Machu Picchu with my grandfather in 1965 as a young boy. His father was Gavino Sanchez (a farmer and landowners from Caicay) who was credited was one of three who explored Machu Picchu in 1902, nine years before Bingham.
Old home videos of that visit showed very few others at Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes.
I’m looking forward visiting Machu Picchu again in 3 weeks and spending a night in AC.
To start… Fantasitc article and so nice it’s been on the go for 4 years!
Edward I too visit in a couple of weeks time.
Here’s hoping you enjoy seeing the family tree come to life, as a grown man.
I for one am very much looking forward to spending some time in this quirky town, I love them!
Take care.
Loved the article. I visited the museum and everything you say brought back memories and us true. Our guide took us around the day before we went to Machu Picchu. He managed to get us a ride back! The walk there, the flowers along the road and the gardens there, parrots and all, were an fantastic addition to our trip
You perfectly summed up the town!
I was there in 2018, and personally I loved it. You were right that it’s not a place you “go” to but I loved the visit. Stepping off the train it was like some mythical little port town of people coming and going. It fed my daydreaming imagination to the fullest. I was there with my boyfriend’s family but had I been there solo I probably would’ve done the Inca Trail in, rested for a day or two just reading, writing and lounging, then hiked up early in the morning to Machu Picchu.
It’s definitely a little town I want to see again and take my own children there to explore one day.