There is a big hype about seeing the sunrise over Machu Picchu. Affected by that I convinced my cousin Sandra that we should walk up to Machu Picchu in time to see the sunrise. That meant getting up at 4 o’clock in the night and start hiking up the mountain at about 5 o’clock. We were told that you need about an hour to hike up there, but that morning when we ate breakfast someone told us that you need at leas two hours and that is not an easy path. If that was true then we were pretty late and since I knew that my cousin wasn’t too exited to hike up there anyway we decided to take the bus. As it turns out, you really need about 2 hours to get up to Machu Picchu by foot unless you are Superman. We got there well ahead of the sunrise but I was pretty disappointed since even though you can’t see the sun, it’s already very bright. So seeing the sun actually come up over Machu Picchu is nothing to die for in my opinion. Far more interesting I found it about an hour after that when the rocks throw nice shadows on the green grass. If you missed the sunrise because you didn’t get there in time; don’t worry about it, nothing missed.
But you certainly shouldn’t miss to visit Machu Picchu at all. It seems like out of this world. It wasn’t as much the ruins that fascinated me, which are certainly the best preserved from the Inca time, but the mere location where they built it, it is absolutely spectacular. It seems like in the middle of an arena, surrounded by a circular mountain chain that almost completely surrounds the center mountain with the city on top. I have never seen anything like it. But the best in my opinion was still to come.
After absorbing the spirit of Machu Picchu for a while from the agricultural steps they built and from within the city itself, we decided to hike up Waynapicchu which is a towering rock just to the side of the city. Standing on the foot of the mountain one would think you’d need climbing experience to get to the top since it seems to go up pretty much vertically. Standing there you wouldn’t imagine that there is actually a path up there. The way up is breathtaking and horrifying at the same time. There are almost no fences and most of the time you are just a step beside the abyss. Something like that would be completely unthinkable in other countries for security reasons. If you are afraid of heights then I recommend you don’t go up there. On the top there are waiting even more surprises. I was thinking: “The Incas must have been crazy in their minds” when I saw the ruins up there. It’s about an hour of walking stairs, going up almost vertically to get up there and the Incas couldn’t think of anything better to do then to construct their buildings up there. I can’t imagine how tough it must have been to bring all the building materials up there and build something almost into vertical rock. I was simply stunned and words or photos could never express what it feels like to stand up there and look at those ruins and the awesome view you have on the top of this mountain. It feels like standing on the tip of a needle where you’re about to fall into nothingness at any time.
Many people go up there and on the top an employee urges the people to take their photos and continue on down because there is very little space. So after a short break we headed downwards. There is circular path and you could take another route down from the peak but unfortunately we missed that and had to go down the same way we came up. Then almost reaching Machu Picchu again we went the opposite way to go visit another temple that you would get to if you took the other way down from the peak. It is interesting to note the change in the vegetation when coming down from the peak. Down here you have almost tropical forest. After that my cousin had enough walking for the day so she went back to the entrance to relax a bit. As for me, I wanted explore some more paths. First I went to the Incas bridge where again the Incas proofed that they weren’t afraid of heights and saw a challenge in building into vertical rock. Coming back from there I headed up another path leading to the end of the famous Inca Trail. I didn’t quite get to the sun gate because it was getting late and I didn’t have any more water with me. Still I got another good view of the city and then headed back for the entrance. It was about 4 o’ clock and I had been walking since about 7 o’clock in the morning, but I couldn’t help it, I just had to walk down the mountain back to the hotel; the way we originally wanted to hike up. My cousin went down with the bus and I got back to the hotel about an hour later. It’s pretty much all stairs but it’s nice to walk through the forest and then see the river with the big rocks, washed shiny by the wild water.