I
don’t really know what came over me to even think about hiking. Once I was on
top of Huayna Picchu and I saw the zigzag road the bus took to get us up there,
I wondered if I would have survived such a hike. From Aguas Calientes going up,
you are likely to take an hour and a half to get to the entrance of Machu
Picchu. You will be traversing the same mountain the bus does through the
zigzag road, but there are trails made especially for hikers so that you won’t
have to zigzag and just head straight up.
Tickets which include Huayna Picchu have restrictions. The first group is allowed to enter the mountain trail from 7AM to 8AM, while the second group is scheduled for 10AM to 11AM. Come a minute late and they won’t let you in. I guess deciding to take the bus last minute saved me from a lot of trouble. Buses leave when they are full, which is every five minutes during peak hours. The ride takes 20 minutes on a comfortable seat as opposed to an hour and a half of hamstring torture.
The
only hotel up there right next to Machu Picchu is said to cost USD700. A NIGHT.
Most people stay at Aguas Calientes down below. There is luggage storage after
they check your passport and entrance tickets, but the line was long and I
arrived at 10:45AM, which meant I only had 15 minutes to run to the entrance of
Huayna Picchu. I snubbed the magnificent views Machu Picchu was bombarding me with
for the first time despite that being hard to do. It paid off, and I arrived at
the gate five minutes to 11.
When
they say that your ticket is valid for entrance until 11AM, that means you can
enter until 11AM, and stay until the mountain is closed down at 2PM, by which
time you have to be back at the gate and ready to leave. After that, you can
then explore Machu Picchu itself which doesn’t close until 5PM. The ascent took
me exactly an hour. Going uphill with me were a French family of four and a
group of three Argentinean girls. When we reached the peak, I met two
Jersey-based Filipino guys.
I was
wearing four layers when I arrived at the mountain gate, and I had to take them
all off except for one because I was already dripping with sweat. I was
fortunate enough that the guard allowed me to leave my backpack with him before
my ascent, which left me with my large paper bag to carry all the way up to the
mountain. Taking a Guess paper bag with you on a hike makes you look like an
idiot. Take it from me. The Argentinean girls kept teasing me about how I really had
to shop before going up there.
It’s
okay, I ended up pushing them down a ravine. Nah, JOKE. They were actually kind
of chatty, and it was fun sharing the misery of climbing a mountain with other
suffering human beings. Climbing a mountain alone seems like a very suicidal
thought. Anyway, the ascent is challenging because of the steepness. It’s as if
you’re half-expecting that someone will suddenly slip, fall down, and die any
minute, but nobody ever does. And so, how fit do you have to be to climb Hayna
Picchu? Not so fit, I’d say, based on myself.
I only
had the croissant and banana that Peru Rail served as snacks, coupled with two
glasses of water. I brought a half empty 625ml bottle of mineral water with me
up to the peak, and didn’t finish it until I got all the way back down. All in
all, I didn’t have lunch when I climbed. I felt like dying when I reached the
peak, but the overwhelming barrage of postcard worthy images takes all that
away, I swear. The feeling is just so awesome, as if you’ve achieved something
that you can brag about for the weeks to come.
There
isn’t much space up there, and you will be lining up to get that selfie at the
peak, of which there are two, but the lower one seems more popular than the
other. You have to climb Huayna Picchu if you want a vantage point high enough
to capture the ruins on the opposite slope, as well as the surrounding peaks.
You won’t be able to get such a photo if you just stay at Machu Picchu. If
anything, it’s a view of Huayna Picchu in the background that you will catch in
that picture if ever, but it’s not as picturesque.
The
descent seems easier, but still took around 45 minutes to finish. You have to
pass by a mini cave on your way down, which opens to another plateau overlooking
the ruins from a lower vantage point. After this spot, you will then be
traversing the same slopes you climbed. This is why climbing can take a longer
time to accomplish, because there are sections of the slopes where two-way
traffic is the norm, and you have to give and take. Overall, allot around 3
hours for the entire hike of Huayna Picchu alone.
[URUBAMBA] Climbing Huayna Picchu
0 creature/s gave a damn:
Post a Comment