Hostal Presidente

Gateway to Machu Picchu

by Tom_In_Madison

This town seems to be made of 3 things, restaurants(pizza!), craft stands(much less persistent than in Cuzco thankfully and more merchandise), and kids. I've never seen so many kids for such a small town. There is a school right in the downtown plaza, and the kids just hang out all day and night while their parents are working. It makes it for a real fun place to stay.

If you want to do 2 or 3 of the hikes spend 2 or 3 nights here, otherwise one night is enough. 4 hours from Cuzco by (Backpacker) train.

There are more hikes around here, but I couldn't find a good map saying where they are. You can walk the last leg of the Inka trail.

Arriving to Aguas Calientes

by SaraCR

And suddenly you enter a comboy movie filmed some 100 years ago!
The steam train you are on stops...500meters back there's nothing...500meters in front there's nothing, but within those 500 meters you have hotels, restaurants and shops! So many people, diferente people dressed in so many differente ways.
If you look up anyway you'll only see the mountains that grow higher and higher and the birds flying high.
Leaving the train in search for the hotel you realize that although not big, Aguas Calientes is not that small.