Peru: On the way to Machu Picchu

There are three ways to get from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes, the tourist town at the base of Machu Picchu. The easiest, quickest, most popular, and expensive way is to take a train the whole way. The longer, somewhat difficult, cheap, and newest way to get there is the way we took which included a bus ride, two taxi rides, and a 15 kilometer hike on railroad tracks. And the hardest, longest, and probably most expensive is to hike the Inca Trail right into Machu Picchu itself. We were interested in doing this four day hike through old Inca ruins but the high cost (due to not being able to hike it without a guide service) steered us away.

We ended up seeing 78 waterfalls just that day. Amazing.

 Our driver lulled us into a false sense of community before taking off around turns like this one.

My sense of security, gone.

Drove through 18 rivers that day.