Once at Puentas Ruinas station, passengers transfer to buses for the two-thousand foot climb to the ruins of Machu Picchu. Anywhere accessible by a crowded bus, you think, is destined to be a letdown. But don't be fooled. As the bus begins its dramatic zigzag ascent, you quickly get a sense of what you're in for. Voices hush as the engine roars and strains, and mouths drop open as each turn thrusts another impossibly spectacular mountainscape into view.
Passengers grip the handrails like the metal bars of a roller coaster.
The road itself is wide and safe, but the sheer cliffs and jutting peaks add perilous excitement to the climb. Added theatrics are provided by young Quechua children. The kids live below, but climb the mountain by foot to head off the buses. They yell and wave as you pass, then cut sideways through the trees to seemingly appear from nowhere around each bend. Atop the ruins, passengers stagger from the buses in a daze.