Machu Picchu Hikes

On our second day at Machu Picchu (Sept 22nd), we did a lot of hiking.

 

First we enjoyed the view from our hotel.

 

Here are some pictures of us after we hiked up the Inca Trail.  We had intended to hike to the Intipunku (the Sun Gate), but gave up somewhere along the way.  Little did we know that in just a few hours, we'd be heading up Huayna Picchu (the mountain in the background in these pictures).


 

So why did we stop before getting to Intipunku? 

 

Because from the looks of it, the trail wasn't getting any easier (Looking back on it all, it was a heck of a lot easier than the mountain we tried later in the day!)


 

We did get some nice views of the ruins though from our stopping point (The mountain that is most prominent in these pictures is Huayna Picchu):




 

So then after we had gotten some more water and rested a bit, I suggested that we try the hike up Huayna Picchu, since all the guidebooks swore it was an easy 2 hour hike, round trip.  We decided that we would just try to get as high up as we could, to take some pictures.

 

Well, we hiked and we hiked and we hiked (imagine 2 hours spent on a stairmaster, factor in heat, lack of water, and overly atheletic tourists pushing their way past you).  It was a very steep path, and at times we had to cling to a guide wire and pull ourselves up a little path no more than a foot wide (those guidebooks lied!).  At our highest point, we looked up and saw that the path got even harder to climb, and that we still had awhile until we reached the top.  That's when we both gave up and decided to come back down...although that was pretty hard too. 

In the first picture, you can see the path winding it's way up the mountain.

The second photo is of the trail itself, so you can see how steep it was (and this wasn't the worst part!) :)


 

During our hike we were so preoccupied with not falling off the side of the mountain that we never even took the pictures we set out to take...

 

...then we managed to take this picture after getting off the trail completely and signing out (you had to sign in at the bottom of the trail so they would know how many people were out hiking...in case anyone didn't come back by that afternoon).


 

After all that hiking, we took the bus back down the mountain, bought a bunch of souvenirs in Aguas Calientes, then took the last train of the day back to Cusco.