There are different options in getting to Machu Picchu, all of them quite expensive. You can hike there, take a train or you can hire a private tour. The first one is a 4-day hike called Inka Trail that is considerably expensive as it is necessary to hire a guide, added to the fact that it has to be booked up to months in advance. The train option would be a good option, except for the fact that is one of the most expensive trains in the world, even if you choose the cheapest fares. Because we didn't want to book with any agency, we ended up to make our way from Cusco to Machu Picchu through a combination of bus and train to get to Aguas Calientes (or Machu Picchu Village, the base town for visiting the ruins).
The first part of our trip was in a tour bus, the typical stop-everywhere-there-is-a-shop-so-that-they-can-spend-money tour! We visited the main spots of the Valle Sagrado de los Incas (the Sacred Valley of the Incas). The valley formed over time by the river Urubamba was not only a sacred and religious area for the Incas, but also had enormous economical and agricultural importance for the Inca Empire as it offered great conditions for farming and had important mineral deposits.
The first part of our trip was in a tour bus, the typical stop-everywhere-there-is-a-shop-so-that-they-can-spend-money tour! We visited the main spots of the Valle Sagrado de los Incas (the Sacred Valley of the Incas). The valley formed over time by the river Urubamba was not only a sacred and religious area for the Incas, but also had enormous economical and agricultural importance for the Inca Empire as it offered great conditions for farming and had important mineral deposits.
One of the first spots of the tour was a good example of that: the ruin complex of Písac is an impressive group of terraced land used for farming along with buildings used for crops storage and workers housing. There is also a necropolis that consists on holes on the slope of the mountain, where the deceased were buried, facing the sun. The colonial city of Písac, built after the Spanish destroyed the original one, is also interesting for its artisan market. Local mines still provide the artisans the raw materials such as silver to produce fine hand made jewelry.