Metropolitan Touring Update:
ETRANSA, the company in charge of repairing the damaged railway segments between the Sacred Valley (Ollantaytambo) and Machu Picchu, issued a statement announcing that works along the Piscacucho – Machu Picchu railroad are going on as planned and that they expect to have trains running by March 29, 2010. This is some days ahead of April 1 2010; the target date set by the Ministry of Commerce and Tourism.
The soon to be restored access to Machu Picchu will require a 50-minute bus ride from the Sacred Valley (Ollantaytambo station) up to Piscacucho (Km.82) followed by an 80-minute train ride to Machu Picchu train station (Aguas Calientes). This bus-train combined service will be provided by PeruRail, who announced today that they will very soon provide details about this service (rates, timetables, etc.).
The Hiram Bingham deluxe train cars will not be available until the beginning of June and any existing Hiram Bingham bookings between April 1 and June 1, will have to be reprogrammed to the Vistadome train service.
It’s very important to mention that with Machu Picchu closed an important portion of February and March bookings have been cancelled. However, most guests decided to continue their trips to Peru and to experience many other amazing destinations, such as Lake Titicaca, the Colca Canyon, Northern Peru, the Jungle in Puerto Maldonado, an Amazon river cruise, among other magical Peruvian highlights. And we are now receiving very positive feedback and excellent reviews from them all, which confirms that Peru is much, much more than just Machu Picchu.
