Travel Reporting by

Mark Stewart

International news reports coming out of Peru this week indicate there have been locally lead boycotts of train and bus services that transport the vast majority of tourists to the Machu Picchu historic site. This boycott has led to tourist being stranded. Some of the most vulnerable travelers have actually been airlifted by Peruvian authorities.

My daughter and I traveled this summer to Machu Picchu. The old abandoned and lost city of the Incans perched 2,500m up in the Andes Mountains and surrounded by Amazon rainforest has been on my bucket travel list for years. During our trip to Peru in July of 2025, we saw no indications of civil unrest in the country and felt safe throughout our journey in Peru.

Going to Machu Picchu is a major travel commitment. We flew from Toronto to Lima, Peru via Bogota, Colombia. Most people spend a couple days in Lima, Peru before flying inland and high up into the Andes Mountains to the regional city called Cusco (population 512,000). Many tourists travel from Cusco into the Sacred Valley (1.5 – 2 hour drive) and stay in hotels near the town of Ollantaytambo, where you catch the train.

On most of my previous travels, I have been my own travel guide handling all the bookings. On this trip, I took advantage of a guided tour package from Exottica Travel (Vacation Packages & Tours | Exoticca). The morning we set out to Machu Pichu, the Exottica shuttle picked us up at our hotel in Urubamba, Peru. Our friendly guides had our five tickets in hand, neatly organized and time sequenced for us. Having no fuss and no logistics to worry about was a nice treat. We could just enjoy the trip and sip the cocoa leaf tea supplied by our hotel.

A journey to and from Machu Pichu is a full day experience. Entailing the following transportation logistics:

• Early Morning Shuttle from Hotel to Ollantaytambo Train Station – 30-60 minutes
• Train Ticket – Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes – 3 hours (with wait time)
• Bus Shuttle Ticket – Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu Site – 30 minutes
• Machu Picchu Entrance Ticket – Timed Entrance – 2 hours walking tour on mountain
• Bus Shuttle Ticket – Machu Picchu Site to Aguas Calientes – 30 minutes
• Train Ticket – Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo – 3 hours with wait time
• Shuttle Back to Hotel – 30-60 minutes

The early morning shuttle dropped us the small village of Ollantaytambo to catch the 7:20 am train at around 6 am. The vendors were just opening their stalls for coffee and breakfast snacks.

When our train departure arrived, a group of local tour guides dressed in traditional costume led us down the street in an early morning parade to board our rail cars.

The terminus for the train trip to Machu Picchu is in a small village called Aguas Calientes (if you know your Spanish, it is Hot Waters).

Here is where you hop off the train and catch a bus up to the historic Incan ruin. Aguas Calientes (pictured below) is the village where tourist were stranded this week during the locals boycott.

From Aguas Calientes, you hop on a shuttle bus that takes you up a series of switchback turns that wind up the side of the mountain to the UNESCO World Heritage Site. My understanding is the bus operator for these shuttles is being changed/consolidated and this has precipitated some grievances with locals regarding employment and thus the boycott.

Machu Picchu is a spiritual place and I could write several articles about its historical and cultural significance. There is a reason it is in the 7 New Wonders of the World List. Standing on the peak is a spiritual experience. However, the site’s foot traffic has also led to situations of over tourism and concerns for the archaeological integrity of the site.

My feeling from my news readings is the local travel boycott will be handled quickly and traffic to the historic site will return to normal soon. The boycott should remind us to never take travel for granted, research your destination and to always try to spend our tourism dollars with local entrepreneurs to ensure travel is a win/win for everyone involved.