You Don't Need to Get Naked to Have Fun at Machu Picchu

By Chris Moody In March, Peruvian authorities began cracking down on visitors who felt the liberty to disrobe and streak the sacred grounds of Machu Picchu. “I almost killed them,” a frustrated tour guide who caught a couple running naked at Machu Picchu told me during a recent visit. You wouldn’t want someone running naked in your office.” The guide, a Peruvian who has visited Machu Picchu hundreds of times, looked at me. Visiting Machu Picchu today, you are free to wander in on your own at daybreak, explore the Incan streets in solitude for hours, and lounge with a llama on the cool stone steps until sunset. Those days could soon be over. Peru is considering a new set of restrictions that would only allow visitors to enter accompanied by a tour guide on pre-approved routes.