Peru Day 9: Machu Picchu!

The morning when we woke up to head to Machu Picchu, it was raining. Not just raining. Pouring. Sheets and sheets of water. We were hoping the weather would clear up by the time we actually reached the site, but it wasn’t to be. Rather, it was still raining hard, and the entire mountain was fogged over. It was hard to hide our disappointment. Wouldn’t you know it. After planning this adventure for about six months, and hiking twelve hours a day for the last week, all to get to Machu Picchu, the disappointment was so crushing, none of us even mentioned it. We just slouched around in an oppressive silence.

The fog was so thick around us, we could barely see more than a few feet away. No Incan ruins, and certainly no surrounding mountains.

“Don’t worry,” Marco said, looking around at our crushed faces. “Sometimes the rain clears if you wait long enough.” And with that, he thanked us all for a great hike, and was gone.

Unsure quite what to do, and more than slightly numbed by the freezing rain, we headed over the little café to try and out-last the weather. Our plan had been to climb Huayna Picchu, the neighbouring mountain peak that towers over Machu Picchu and therefore offers a top-down perspective of the ruins, and despite the weather, we decided to go ahead with the climb. As it turned out, Huayna Picchu was some of the most difficult hiking we had encountered yet. Painstakingly, and not without difficulty, we made our way up the narrow, steep path towards the top of the mountain. And then, all of a sudden, just as we approached the top, the rain suddenly stopped. And a few minutes later, the clouds started clearing, and glimmers of sun peeked through the sky. Just when we’d resigned ourselves to perhaps having no views of Machu Picchu at all, there it was, spread out on the mountain side below us, glistening like a jewel in a hypnotic, post-rain haze. We couldn’t take our eyes of it.

When at last we reached the top of Huayna Picchu, I couldn’t believe what we had before us. The top of Huayna Picchu consists of a few large boulders balancing precariously on the mountain top. Everyone who climbs the mountain has to somehow secure themselves a perch on one of the boulders. There just isn’t any other space at the very top. Off the boulders, on all sides, is sheer cliff face. The whole situation was so risky, and so precarious, I couldn’t believe they actually let people up here. I couldn’t believe there weren’t more injuries, or even deaths. And yet, it’s the thing to do. Everyone climbs Huayna Picchu. We certainly did too, and I have to say, we loved every moment of it.

We spent a long time at the top of Huayna Picchu, absorbing the peaceful calm that had settled over the mountains. When we finally descended from the peak later that afternoon, we decided to walk to the Sun Gate – which used to be the official entrance of Machu Picchu for the Incas. The trail to the Sun Gate was more than two miles long, and had been cut into the mountain face the entire way. All along the walk, we were offered stunning views of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains and valleys. Words could not describe how encompassingly beautiful the entire scene was.

If you ever do make it to Machu Picchu, you must climb Huayna Picchu (despite what I just said above) and walk to the Sun Gate. We sat there for a long time, until we watched the sun set over Machu Picchu. Easily one of the most beautiful scenes I have seen in my life.