Aguas Calientes and/or Machupicchu Pueblo

All our guidebooks mentioned this place as "Aguas Calientes." In our three days here, I never heard it called that. I did hear about the "aguas termales" (hot springs), but the city name was always called "Machupicchu Pueblo." Name identity crisis is only appropriate for this town that is both majestic in beauty and crushed under too much tourism too fast. 

Everywhere there is construction. The commotion of locals (those that don't work as guides or UNESCO watch keepers) hustle around town all day carrying cement and propane tanks. 

There is new construction going up everywhere and the sound if building fills the later morning all the way into the late evening. 

Then there's the commerce. Walk around in the evening and each restaurant entices you with special deals and all day happy hour (an oxymoron, anyone?), 

women offering massages, and all kinds of shops selling your classic Peruvian clothes and souvenirs. 

And there are police everywhere. They're helpful and friendly, but their role as to whom they're there to protect is very clear. 

Yet there's just an inescapable beauty of this place. The mountains forever loom over you and a river peacefully flows through town. The light at this altitude hallows the sacred grounds it precedes. Machupicchu Pueblo is an enigma. You have to choose to focus on its wonderful delights. If not, try the overpriced "4 for 1" Pisco Sours to get you there.