Aguas Calientes - Machu Picchu Town & Thermal Springs
Apart from hiking the Inca Trail, a stay in Aguas Calientes, is one of the best ways to get to Machu Picchu before all of the tourists arrive by train from Cuzco. Of course it's Machu Picchu that people have came to visit, but Aguas Calientes offers visitors thermal springs believed to possess curative powers.
Machu Picchu is a complete Inca city. For centuries it was buried in jungle, until Hiram Bingham stumbled upon it in 1911. It was then explored by an archaeological expedition sent by Yale University. The ruins - staircases, terraces, temples, palaces, towers, fountains and the famous Intihuatana (the so-called "Hitching Post of the Sun") - require at least a day. But not only the masonry is very interesting, visitors might also see the selection of large rocks for foundations, the use water in channels below the Temple of the Sun and the surrounding mountains!
Escorted Tours including Lima and/or Machu Picchu:
