"One of the highlights of the trip was the 2 days excursion I made to Machupicchu. The narrow gauge railway which took about 41/5 hours, first has to zig zag up the mountainside at the back of Cusco, and an hour later I could still see the station we had left 1200' below. After that the train crosses  a flat plain and into a deep valley, with the sides getting steeper the further we went until there was just room for the track alongside the Urubamba River, a main tributary of the Amazon. I travelled with 3 American travellers I had met at the hotel in Cusco. At Machupicchu station we crossed the river via a small bridge and into a waiting mini bus for the 20 minute climb up the 1500' and, round 13 hairpin bends later to the ruins.
 
What a place Machupicchu was, it has to be one of the most impressive sights I have ever seen, the views of the mountains and tree covered valleys on all sides was so beautiful that it would have been worth visiting the spot even if the ruins had not been there.
The ruins built by the Incas was not discovered until 1911 and so it was well preserved with some of the buildings having been restored to show how they would have been with their grass roofs and making it all the more interesting.
The stone work on some of the more important buildings was so well put together without mortar that it was impossible to get a piece of paper between the stones.
 
We stayed two days sleeping out on one of the terraces in our sleeping bags, and it was worth it if only for the view of the sunrise next morning. I would have liked to stay much longer but we had only brought food for the two days, and it was far too expensive to eat at the small hotel, built just out of sight of the ruins. So sadly we got the train that afternoon back to Cusco for a night there, before also sadly saying goodbye to the Americans I had met, and I took the train, this time up to Puno." - MH