Machu Picchu to close for seven weeks!

[marazul]

Government experts are reassesing the trekker's route that will allow reopening MP by March 15. It is now said that the approach will be by the Inka Trail (4-day trek) and the return by old inka roads towards Santa Maria and Santa Teresa. Trekkers will cross the river to reach the return vehicles using an "oroya" (a system that involves cables over the river). The hydroelectric management will start building (or reinforcing) a platform bridge to cross the river so it can be used instead of the oroya. The Inka Trail did not suffer any damages.

 

The results of the technical evaluations should be released by the weekend.

And by the way, no mention of how the trekkers will get to the Inka Trail head.

 

Stay tuned.

[marazul]

It was just announced that the train from Piscacucho to MP will reopen on Monday, March 29 ahead of schedule. Repairs on the tracks is going faster that anticipated.

 

No word on the road repairs from Ollanta to Piscacucho.

[marazul]

1. More on reopening the train from Piscacucho to MP. Only three segments of the track remain to be repaired. Two are almost done. The third requires further blasting and rebuilding of the track bed. (And still nothing said about road repairs from Ollanta to Piscacucho.)

 

2. The road from Santa Teresa to the hydroelectric has a lot more problems. They have only begun to work on two of the nine destroyed segments. Talk continues about building two tunnels (eventually) to repair the route.

 

3. The Peruvian Prime Minister is supposed to be in Cusco next Tuesday and inspect all repairs in person - whatever that means.

 

4. This week's rains caused the collapse of 200 m. of inka wall in the Pisac ruins. They lasted for 800 years. A bit better than the train tracks.

[xcountry]

thanks again for keeping us all posted on the latest in Peru.

 

Much appreciated!

 

Carol

[marazul]

Thanks, xcountry.

 

Some distressing news in today's paper. Last week two Australian women died while rafting in the Vlcanota river. It has just been determined that their two guides were high on pot. Furthermore, they were not licensed. They worked for the Mayuc travel agency.

 

The editorial says that the plan to reopen MP on 3/15 using the Inka trail, etc is crazy.

[marazul]

In case you've been wondering, no news is no news.

 

If the prime minister went to Cusco yesterday, it didn't make the paper.

Today, a commission of engineers, security people, etc started an inspection of the roads from Cusco, Ollanta, Piscacucho, etc.

 

The Four Seasons hotel chain is considering buying a hotel in Cusco. No candidates mentioned.

[marazul]

Nothing in the papers today, but check out this website. A travel agency has driven the various routes and took pictures.

http://www.condortravel.com/news.php

[marazul]

The government confirms that the train from Piscacucho to MP will reopen March 29. The segments from Piscacucho to Ollantaytambo and Cusco will not be ready until June or July.

 

Nothing on reopening the Inca trail on Monday.

[xcountry]

The government confirms that the train from Piscacucho to MP will reopen March 29. The segments from Piscacucho to Ollantaytambo and Cusco will not be ready until June or July.

 

Nothing on reopening the Inca trail on Monday.

 

 

What does this mean for your trip? Does this mean you need to travel to Piscacucho to take the train? Will they have a bus that takes you from Cusco to Piscacucho?

[marazul]

Hi xcountry,

 

the plans are to take passengers by bus from Ollantaytambo to Piscacucho to board the train. Same for the return. The PeruRail train ticket will include the bus. They haven't announced whether there will be a price adjustment or what the timetable will be. I'm planning to get in touch with them in a few days to see what the plans are. We are also sort of in "the bubble" for restoration of train service all the way to Ollantaytambo - not really optimistic about it, but there is a chance.

 

Thanks for your concern. I'll definitely be posting on what's going on. There has been nothing much in the Peruvian media in the past few days. If they reopened the Inca Trail today, there is nothing about it in the news.

 

Keep tuned. . .

M

[Coolcruise02]

I appreciate all up-dates! :)

[janmcn]

My family will be staying in the Sacred Valley the first week of June and was planning to take the train to MP (Ollantaytambo-Aqua Calientes?) ...what does this mean for them?

[j2ink]

My family will be staying in the Sacred Valley the first week of June and was planning to take the train to MP (Ollantaytambo-Aqua Calientes?) ...what does this mean for them?

 

See marazul's post above: "the plans are to take passengers by bus from Ollantaytambo to Piscacucho to board the train. Same for the return. The PeruRail train ticket will include the bus."

[marazul]

Still no news. Apparently the Inca trail did not reopen last Monday.

 

janmcn - there is a slight chance that the train will reopen all the way to Ollantaytambo in June. I would not count on it. There is a very good chance that the bus-train combo will be working from April on. If this combo does reopen on March 29, there will be more official announcements. I'm checking the Peruvian media everyday and will post anything of interest.

[marazul]

The government announced today that MP will reopen on April 1. This is a firm date. Final inspections of the rail track from Piscacucho to MP will begin next week.

 

Hopefully, more info will be released in the next few days. Stay tuned.

[j2ink]

marazul, I assume there is no word yet on when the train or train/bus combination tickets from Piscacucho or Ollantaytambo to MP will be on sale again on the internet.

 

I'm planning to be there at the end of June, but I would like to reserve the train tickets as early as possible (from Ollantaytambo). I'm afraid the uncertainty about when the train line will be totally open from Cusco will prevent the sale of tickets in advance, and then we will need to battle for tickets when we get there.

 

Thanks for all the information you have been providing to us.

[marazul]

j2ink,

the website is not letting you do any reservations right now because I think they are reworking the schedules. We had already bought our tickets for the end of May and I hope we will get priority over future sales. They will probably not have as many trains per day as they used to. I sent an email to the Peru rail main office and I am waiting for a reply. I really think that you will be fine by the end of June. They are hoping to get the line reestablished through to Ollanta by June/July. Ollanta to Cusco could take longer.

Keep checking the perurail.com website daily. They may come back with the schedule soon. If they are really going to reopen by 4/1 they will have to have schedules posted very soon as that will be the only access to MP.

I'll let you know what I find out.

M

[marazul]

There is a tentative timetable for the bus/train route to MP for the month of April. There will be five trains per day. The info is not yet in the perurail website. I obtained it through contacts in Cusco. There should be more info available this week.

Things are looking up.

[marazul]

Not many news lately.

 

1. The road from Ollanta to Piscacucho is very narrow and will not allow large buses. The picture in the paper shows a narrow one-lane road.

 

2. Many hotels in Cusco are taking the opportunity to close down for renovations. All expect to be ready in April.

 

3. A colder than usual "frost season" is forecast from May through July.

 

Still no word from Peru Rail regarding schedules. I have seen the five train a day schedule for April in a couple of sources.

[marazul]

Peru Rail posted the schedules for April (five trains per day) and May (eleven trains per day) in their website. They are accepting reservations for all dates.

[j2ink]

Perurail actually is accepting reservations through the end of June, but when I tried to book seats near the end of June, the two earliest trains from Ollanta did not appear in the section to make reservations. The earliest train in this section is listed as 10:55 am, which is much too late. Hopefully they will fix this and add the trains at 6:43 am and 7:35 am to the reservation availability.

 

I also noticed that luggage is restricted to a small carry-on/backpack, so that is going to make it difficult for travelers to stay overnight in Aguis Calientes with almost no luggage.

[marazul]

You could leave your luggage at the hotel you checked out from (or the next one). Get in touch with them, they'll probably help you out. That's what we are doing.

[Jeep61]

We just received our vouchers and details for our excursion to the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Cusco from South American Vacations (based in Florida) who made all the arrangements for us. We are leaving Urubamba at 5:00AM, going by bus and train and arriving in Agua Calientes at about 9:30AM - so earlier trains are available. We will be leaving AC one day later at about 3:00PM then taking the train and bus back to Cusco. That gives you some idea of a possible schedule. Fortunately we will have private drivers to get us to and from the bus/train stations.

[marazul]

Jeep61,

 

the schedule is different depending on which month you go. Here is a link to the actual schedules for April and May. Also check the luggage restrictions:

http://www.perurail.com/web/tper/tper_temp_services.html

 

The schedule for June is showing fewer departures than May's. That should change. They might be waiting to see if the tracks are repaired between Piscacucho and Ollanta to issue an update.

 

j2ink - note that they are providing free luggage storage at the Ollanta train station.

M

[2552phxcrzr]

Perurail actually is accepting reservations through the end of June, but when I tried to book seats near the end of June, the two earliest trains from Ollanta did not appear in the section to make reservations. The earliest train in this section is listed as 10:55 am, which is much too late. Hopefully they will fix this and add the trains at 6:43 am and 7:35 am to the reservation availability.

 

I also noticed that luggage is restricted to a small carry-on/backpack, so that is going to make it difficult for travelers to stay overnight in Aguis Calientes with almost no luggage.

 

This is nothing new ... the trains (Vistadome) have no real luggage storage space. We stayed three nights and managed with two small duffels - our hotel in Ollanta stored the rest of our luggage and we picked it up when we returned from AC.