Today we woke up early for the first train to Machu Picchu. It was a long, hard day hiking at altitude, but the totally worth the effort.
Roiling Urubamba River
After a 5am departure from Ollantaytambo, our train rolled along the roiling Urubamba river to the tiny town of Aguas Calientes. What the typical viewpoint doesn’t capture is that the river is nearly two thousand feet below the ruins, and has carved an incredibly steep canyon. Obscured in fog when we arrived, we took a bus up the Hiram Bingham road, named for the American “discoverer” of the lost city. You can climb instead of paying $25 for a bus ticket, but we had bigger ambitions for our limited energy.
Huaynapicchu
Huaynapicchu is the rounded bit of rock that stands above the ruins in the classic view from the Watchman’s Hut. There are a limited number of tickets per day available for hikers, with 200 slots from 7-8 and another 200 from 9-10. We got tickets for 8am, dashed through the ruins to the checkpoint, and arrived within 10 minutes of the closing window. Once we signed in, I was #151, we could slow down to appreciate the scenery and take the climb at our own pace.
The trail is well defined, and mostly stone stairs up the sheer side of the mountain. I recalled my old running coach’s advice, “one foot in front of the other”, as we slowly climbed up the sheer mountainside. At each turn, views of the ruins behind us would peek through the foliage, each time slightly more visible and further away than the last. Finally, we emerged from the trees to a flat terraces near the peak, where we stopped to admire the view and take well-deserved selfies.
Double Selfie
Temples Emerging from the Mist
After a light lunch on top, we descended the back of the mountain towards the little-visited Temple of the Moon. Down a thirty foot wooden ladder, and hundreds more steps, we finally arrived at the Gran Caverna, and the small temple used for astronomical observations. The actual site was a little underwhelming given the effort exerted to reach it, but the adventure is the journey, not the destination. After another break, we ascended slowly back to the col between the mountains, breathing heavily in the thin air. When the rains began, and I removed my shirt for a brief outdoor shower, and a brief respite from the humidity.
Ascending the back of Huayna Picchu
Temple of the Moon
We finished the hike in about 4.5 hours, a little over the recommended time. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking slowly through the ruins, admiring the Incan engineers who moved mountains and flattened cols to build this place, without the use of wheels and making measurements with knots of string.
The Coming Rains
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