Good Morning,
Happy 60th birthday to David!
We awoke in Machu Picchu to rain and mist (a pretty normal occurrence here during the rainy season). After a nice buffet-style breakfast, Gilmar met us so that he and David could do the ascent of Huayna Picchu today. While there may be thousands of people in Machu Picchu daily viewing the historical sites and soaking in the spirit of the place, there are only 400 tickets sold each day for the Huayna Picchu hike. You must arrive early and join the queue or purchase a ticket in advance if you want to climb, because demand for the ascent always exceeds the availability of tickets.
Huayna Picchu (which means "young peak" in Quechua, the Incan dialect) is the mountain we always see featured prominently in images of Machu Picchu. It is one of several cocoon-shaped mountains that form a sort of - well, cocoon around the Machu Picchu site.
David already had sore knees from all the hiking we did yesterday, but he was determined to get out there and do this hike today, particularly in light of the big 6-0. :). Karen had said she would enter the park with them and do some of the initial ascent, but didn't think she would try to make it all the way up.
As it turned out, all three of us did the ENTIRE climb! We took it extremely slowly, with many rest breaks, but we all got to the top in about an hour-and-a-half.
We learned on the way up that many people had come here specifically to do the climb in light of the date: today is 12/12/12. We were unaware of the significance of this, but as we climbed, fellow trekkers told us that it would actually be 12/12/12 today. We also realized that we would be reaching the top around noon, so we decided to wait at the summit until 12:12:12 (time) as many others were also doing. Shortly thereafter, the expected moment arrived! The crowd was very excited as the time approached, but afterwards we were surprisingly all still there. What a let-down - the Aliens didn't take any of us and nothing else mystical happened. Still, it was a fun thing to do.
We found ourselves literally in and out of the clouds on the climb up and completely enveloped by the clouds at the summit, along with the rain you might expect inside of a cloud! But once again we waited a bit and it passed enough so that we were able to take in some magnificent views of the sites 800 feet below.
We are being very blasé about the hike, but it was absolutely amazing! Just as stunning - or perhaps even more because of the earned effort it rewarded - than the views we had of Machu Picchu yesterday! The trail was narrow and wet, with treacherous thousand foot and more drops at every turn. You had to pass others coming down by finding a wide (er) spot, or hanging onto each other as you passed. When the clouds parted enough to see, the views were simply breathtaking. When we say the steps were narrow, we're saying they were just a foot or two wide and extremely steep, so that it was almost hand-over-hand. Not exactly rock climbing, but you sometimes felt that you were. At some of the really wicked places, they had installed cables so that you could grip (for dear life!) and drag yourself higher. Or on the way down, keep from going head over heels. There was nothing on the outside to keep you from taking that first step down a thousand or more feet! And did we mention it was wet and slick? :)))) Honestly, this would have been banned at any public place in the States. I (David) cannot tell you how proud I was of Karen for undertaking this!
When Bob and Robin and I did a hike on the Appalacian Trail, one of my most frequent whines was "no more up!". Well, this is the very tip top of Huayna Picchu! There is no more up!
The descent of course was wet, steep and treacherous, but we arrived at the bottom unscathed except for the normal soreness two out of shape and aging people should expect when taking on a hike like this! The remainder of the afternoon was spent in our lodge SITTING over afternoon tea, chatting with fellow hotel guests, and waiting for the bus to arrive so that we could retrace our steps via bus and train to Cusco.
Tonight we will be staying in Cusco at the Hotel Monasterio. More on that tomorrow.
All best,
David and Karen
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