Monday, October 15, 2007

Climbing Wayna Picchu...

We are sitting in a dark little internet place (I don´t think I would call it a cafe...) catching up a bit before we take the shuttle to Juliaca and begin our long journey home. It has been an amazing adventure... though, and I will share this now that the trip is almost over, I have struggled with altitude sickness for most of the trip. Just headaches and nauseau, but enough to keep meet at a much slower pace than I would like! Believe it or not, Machu Picchu was the best portion of the trip being a bit lower in the Andes. It is set in the midst of mountainous jungle and we, being slightly crazy, decided to hike up to one of the high peaks overlooking the ruins. What is nice about being slightly crazy is the fact that you meet other slightly crazy people to bond with along the way... a young woman from Iceland and her family who sang songs at the top of the mountain. A couple that were engaged in one of the buildings at the top. The all-American snack team... a father and three grown sons who pulled out pringles, m&m´s, a jar of jelly and wheat bread, twizzlers, and just about any other type of junk food you could find... all carried to the top of the mountain. And two young Australian guys who literally ran to the top and back... sweating beer, they later told us. We would run into these people and others throughout the trip. Cathy and Jim are great at making friends with just about anyone!
Below are a few pictures from the hike to give you an idea of just how crazy we were!
Did I mention we had to get in line at 5:15 am to catch the first buses up the mountain.

View of Machu Picchu. The mountain in the background is Wayna Picchu, the destination of our hike.

View of the mountains in the morning.

Some of the thousands of stairs we climbed to reach the peak. It was all stone stairways that wound up the side of the mountain.


The beautiful views along the way.


We made it to the top!

View of Machu Picchu.

The ruins at the top of Wayan Picchu.

3 comments:

Rhi said...

Wow, amazing photos! I just had to click when I saw one on Blogger live :)

Anonymous said...

I was just here!
My mom and I decided to go to Peru for my 16th birthday, and we both loved climbing Wanya Picchu. It was one of the many highlights of our trip. Thank you for posting your amazing pictures, they bring back such good memories.

njaimes said...

Hike Wayna Picchu worths the trip to Peru, what a view, what a rush of adrenaline