We woke up extremely early today (and yeah, I do mean extremely – like 5am). If you plan on hiking Machu Picchu Mountain, you have to be up by a certain time, and the earlier the better due to the clouds that tend to roll in. It usually takes about two hours to climb the mountain, which is only 3,466 stairs to the top. And they are very large stairs. No biggie, right?
Hiking Machu Picchu Mountain
Well, with our expertise in stair climbing and breathing at high elevations, we made it to the top in a little less than an hour. I can hear the applause from here – thank you, thank you!! I can genuinely say that the burning thighs and huffing and puffing was totally worth it.
When we looked around, we were surrounded by mist, but we could also look across to see Waynu Picchu (meaning young mountain), and down to see the Machu Picchu ruins. After trying to look pretty for pictures after sweating up a storm, we started to make our trek back and that’s when all the clouds rolled in. Lucky us, huh? We were also pretty lucky on our decent since no one died. It was close though with mom’s clumsiness she almost fell of the cliff. And you think I’m kidding? No, no I am not. She did almost fall off the cliff! Luckily, a bush caught her!
We all made it down in one piece and joined the rest of the group who didn’t want to make the climb early in the morning. We saw the Incan Bridge, which is on the opposite side of Machu Picchu Mountain, where the Incans would escape if something went wrong.
The Machu Picchu Ruins
We also toured the ruins and learned a lot of history behind them. Mr. Bingham discovered the ruins with the help of a 12-year-old boy who had taken adventures around where he lived. They found 167 skeletons in the cemetery, and about 50% were females. No one had suffered from wars or violent activities and died around the ages of 60 through 85 years old. Within the ruins, they carved rocks in the shape of mountains?you can see the mountain it represents right behind it. They symbolized Pachamama, the temple of the sun, the condor, air, and water. There were about 200 rooms, and only about 700 people were selected by the Incan King as personal servants.
They chose their location for Machu Picchu because it was surrounded by the four cardinal directions. Veronica was on one side, Puma Silo on the other, Machu Picchu pointed South, and Waynu Picchu pointed North. The location was also surrounded by a river, which followed the Milky Way, and to them was very important.
If you are going to visit Machu Picchu and plan to be hiking Machu Picchu Mountain, be sure to bring sun protection and a lot of water as it gets hot there during the day!