Big Day!
6-6:30am We took a bus - correction- I took a bus, Ezra ran- from the village up the switchback mountain road to the entrance of the Maccu Picchu historic site.
This picture shows the switchbacks up the mountain:
From the entrance, we first quickly walked across the ruins to the far side where there is a trail head to climb the Huana Picchu mountain - the tall mountain you can see in the background:
Does this look like a good climbing mountain? I looked up there and thought, "What crazy idea is this? This mountain looks like sheer straight up!" Can you see some rock buildings at the very top? Only if you zoom in very close (try the next 2 pics below), you can barely make out some terrace lines way at the top, and the edge of a few buildings. Who in the world looked up there from down here and thought it might be a good idea to build a house up there? Crazy people!
This pic is from Wikipedia, showing the terraces and buildings on top:
Already breathtaking view wherever we turn!
So here we are finally on the trail to hike Huana Picchu:
The trail to get up to the top is an old Inca trail. It is basically rock stairs, sometimes narrow and huge steps, zig-zagging back and forth all the way up.
We went straight to the top of the mountain first, enjoying more fabulous views.
The peak of Huayna Picchu is about 2,720 metres (8,920 ft) above sea level, or about 360 metres (1,180 ft) higher than Machu Picchu.
Then we toured the ruins. There are only a couple buildings way up here. I think they are religious buildings - either temples or the residence of the high priest.
There are many terraces up here. Mostly to prevent erosion, I think.
Steep! Kind of scary.
The hike up, around the peak and around the ruins, and back down again took over 2 hours. Gorgeous views everywhere you look!!
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