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Machu Picchu Adventure: We Did It! & Huayna Picchu
I hope you’re ready for a whole lot of pictures in this post!
Day 4 – Machu Picchu (Finally!)
The beginning of day four was certainly climactic and it only went up from there! After we had gotten our fill from afar of Machu Picchu at the sun gate, our group made our way 30 minutes down to the actual Machu Picchu site.
We stood in line briefly and then all took the classic picture in front of the ruins (which, as I see them now, actually look like we’re in front of a green screen! I promise that is certainly NOT the case!!).
From that view point, we actually had to exit the site, and then officially enter the site again with our tickets. Perched on one of the many terraces, we had another history lesson from Alex about the supposed origins of Machu Picchu.
We continued the talk with a walk through of some of the ruins. Machu Picchu was believed to have been built around 1450 for the famous Incan emperor Pachacuti. It served as an estate of sorts for said emperor until it was abandoned during the Spanish Conquest. It was later ‘re-discovered’ (though local farmers & residents had been frequenting the ruins for quite a while) in 1911 by American Hiram Bingham. Since then, it’s become one of the most popular tourist attractions in South America. Here’s a whole whack of pictures I took from our time spent touring around the ruins:
Huayna Picchu
At 10:30am, Mac, E, & I left the group to go climb yet another mountain – Huayna Picchu. This is the mountain that stands tall behind Machu Picchu (300m above to be exact). We had purchased tickets to climb the mountain through Wayki Trek. The tickets are limited to 400 people per day, and can only be fulfilled between 7-8am and 10-11am. We started the hike around 10:45am.
It was not an easy hike by any means. At some points, the path has cables drilled into the rock face to help trekkers ascend the stairs by using them as a handrail of sorts. With quite a bit of huffing and puffing, we eventually made it to the summit about 45 minutes later.
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How we pretended to feel after hiking to the summit….
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…How I actually felt
WHAT a view!! Machu Picchu is very hard to miss from up at this level! We could see the entire layout of Machu Picchu below, and I think this hike solidified what we had accomplished in the past four days. (The winding road you see in many of the pictures from Huayna Picchu is the road the buses take to go to & from Machu Picchu. There are 13 switchbacks and it takes about 25-30 minutes.)
The hiking continued as we made our way through a tunnel and upwards to another landing area made up of huge boulders. I was definitely too scared to do anything but scoot my bum across the rocks – other people were practically jumping from stone to stone!! Nooooo thank you!!
We admired the view for a while before descending down another steep set of stairs (seriously, those Incans sure had a thing for steep stairways!) and eventually heading back down the mountain back to Machu Picchu. We fit in some more touring around the ruins before catching the bus to Aguas Calientes below.
In Aguas Calientes, we calmed our sore muscles in the hot springs just 5 minutes from the main street. We also met up with our Papa Pumas again for one final lunch at one of the MANY restaurants in town while we watched the trains drive by.
Final Thoughts
It seems so weird to have finished hiking the Inca Trail because it was the one thing that Mac and I had planned prior to leaving on this trip. Together with E, the three of us finalized the booking of the Inca Trail way back in November! It seems like so long ago now, and it’s hard to believe that it’s now over! Before starting the hike, I was sceptical of my abilities and I definitely had my doubts about the whole thing. I’m so happy to have been proven wrong, as I was completely capable and I had an amazing time in the process!
I’ll be doing a Tips, Logistics & Practical Information post soon for anything you ever wanted to know about hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (packing, cost breakdown, equipment rentals etc.). If you have any questions you’d like me to answer, let me know in the comments below!
PS. Want to read more about our Machu Picchu Adventure? Check out these posts!:
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