Peru Guide
Cusco
The train journey from Cusco to Machu Picchu
The new improved service offered by Peru Rail between Cusco and Machu Picchu – one of the finest mountain train journeys in the world – enhances the thrill of riding tracks through such fantastic scenery even further by offering very good service and comfortable, well-kept carriages. Rumbling out of Cusco around 6am the wagons zigzag their way through the backstreets, where little houses cling to the steep valley slopes. It takes a while to rise out of the teacup-like valley, but once it reaches the high plateau above, the train rolls through fields and past highland villages before eventually dropping rapidly down into the Urubamba Valley utilising several major track switchbacks, which means you get to see some of the same scenery twice. It reaches the Sacred Valley floor just before getting into Ollantaytambo, where from the windows you can already see scores of impressively terraced fields and, in the distance, more Inca temple and storehouse constructions. Ollantaytambo's pretty railway station is right next to the river, and here you can expect to be greeted by a handful of Quechua women selling their mainly woollen craft goods. The train continues down the valley, stopping briefly at Km 88, where the Inca Trail starts, then follows the Urubamba River as the valley gets tighter (that's why there's no road) and the mountain becomes more and more forested as well as steeper and seemingly taller. The end of the line these days is the new station at Machu Picchu Pueblo (also known as Aguas Calientes), a busy little town crowded into the valley just a short bus ride from the ruins themselves. For information on tickets and schedules, check the website 
www.perurail.com