I knew as soon as I had a trip planned to Peru that I would have to do one of the hikes at Machu Picchu on my second day there. Thankfully, Nico was also more than happy to oblige in a day of some physical exertion and (hopefully) fantastic views. Since I have a *cough* mild fear of heights, Huayna Picchu was out, and I had heard that the views were better from the top of Machu Picchu anyway, so Machu Picchu Mountain it was!
We had a very early morning breakfast before the sun, getting to the entrance of Machu Picchu right on time for our 7am entrance permit. The entire area was still completely socked in by low-lying clouds, which meant that for the first 30 minutes or so the only views we had were mist and the seemingly infinite number of steps that it was going to take to get to the top.
Thankfully it was not long before the morning sun started to burn off the fog, revealing mountains that we had already ascended above. It was also at this time that I had to fully admit that - be it the humidity, the elevation, or the steep climb - this hike was certainly kicking our butt a bit - and this is coming from two experienced hikers who live in Montana!
But, we had absolutely no regrets as we got closer and closer to the top of the mountain. We also were almost entirely alone on the hike up, just passing the occasional hiker or two every fifteen minutes or so, which is not a common occurrence at the main part of Machu Picchu. After about 90 minutes of this pretty challenging hike we were rewarded with near perfect views of
Huayna Picchu as well as the many surrounding mountains. It was also at this time that I noticed that I had cell reception, so I sent off a few pics of our feat for bragging rights. Nothing to stoke the feelings of FOMO quite like getting texts from your friends from the top of Machu Picchu!
