Machu Picchu
An Inca estate on a ridge, and the valley that explains it
Machu Picchu is timed-entry, one-way circuits, and a fixed number of tickets per slot. That is a constraint but also an opportunity: with the right circuit and the right hour, your clients walk a ridge that four thousand other people are not on that morning.
The site makes no sense without the Sacred Valley beneath it, so we spend three nights there first, at 2,800 metres rather than Cusco’s 3,400, which also solves the altitude. Moray, the salt pans of Maras, and a weaving cooperative in Chinchero come before the train to Aguas Calientes.
