{"id":18477,"date":"2026-06-10T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=18477"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:00:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:00:45","slug":"aguas-caliente-peru-a-small-town-before-the-step-up-to-machu-picchu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/aguas-caliente-peru-a-small-town-before-the-step-up-to-machu-picchu\/","title":{"rendered":"Aguas Caliente, Peru – a small town before the step up to Machu Picchu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The hotel we stayed in for the two nights visiting Machu Picchu was called the Sumaq Machu Picchu Hotel and was located right on the edge of the town. It was really comfortable, and I highly recommend it. It was located alongside the river at the bottom of the hill, away from the station. You can read about our visit to Machu Picchu here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Although we had second-entrance tickets to return to the Machu Picchu citadel, we felt we’d experienced and seen this remarkable site under perfect conditions the day before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning, the weather was very overcast, and clouds hung over the ruins. I\u2019m sure this would give it an eerie atmosphere; you could just imagine life there in the fourteenth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We decided to explore the town of Aguas Calientes, including the shops and market. We also made our way along the road away from the town, following the river on foot to the Mariposa butterfly reserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Whilst the butterfly place was small we had the opportunity to learn about the various stages of the butterflies life and development. We also saw many different species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the afternoon we made our way to Aguas Calientes Train Station to catch our train to Ollantaytambo. Although we had no suitcases with us, as these had been transferred to our hotel in Cusco already, we had overnight bags that were brought by the hotel staff to the station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Vistadome train departed Aguas Calientes 1455, and arrived in Ollantaytambo 1631.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was entertainment on route by the staff,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On arrival, we were met and transferred to our hotel in Cusco. The drive that should have taken approximately one and a half hours took much longer due to traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on our time visiting one of the world’s most famous sites, Machu Picchu, you realise you’ve just seen one of the seven wonders of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The hotel we stayed in for the two nights visiting Machu Picchu was called the Sumaq Machu Picchu Hotel and was located right on the edge of the town. It was really comfortable, and I highly recommend it. It was located alongside the river at the bottom of the hill, away from the station. You…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":1442,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1505,1506,1442],"tags":[1508,1507,1445,1509,1471],"class_list":["post-18477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aguas-caliente","category-macchu-picchu","category-peru","tag-aguas-caliente","tag-hotel-sumaq","tag-machu-picchu","tag-mariposa-butterfly-reserve","tag-peru"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC08431_res-12.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ZU0a-4O1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18477"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20081,"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18477\/revisions\/20081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiftyfourandcounting.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}