Whining... True! (Wayna Picchu's English Translation)
Name: Wayna Picchu Trail
Address: Machu Picchu, Peru
Date of Hike: Monday, January 28th, 2019
Duration: 2 hours
Distance: Unsure
Difficulty: Very Challenging
✅Historic Site ✅Panoramic Views
🚫Shade🚫Picnic Area
Only NOW in my research for this post did I found out that this hike is called "The Stairs of Death"... like...
From inside the Machu Picchu site, you can see Wayna Picchu on the left. It's the mountain you've seen in probably every picture ever of Machu Picchu. Now it's hard to make out in this picture but there are actually stairs leading all the way to the top.
According to Wikipedia, the temple at the top of Wayna Picchu was the "residence for the high priest and the local virgins." So there's that.
Here's our "before" picture. So ambitious, so destined for a world of pain.
Only 400 people per day are allowed to climb Wayna Picchu. You can either buy a ticket for 7:00 AM or 10:00 AM. Since this was part of our one-day ticket to enter Machu Picchu, we did the Machu Picchu tour first, and ended with this rigorous hike.
There's literally a sliver of land that passes between Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu's peaks, and once you get across, the climb kind of reminded me of a cathedral's staircase, just steep as hell with no regard for safety.
I mean... this is what the final 100 or so stairs look like:
Everything leading up to this was just switchback stairs that were wet with morning rain.
Here is a picture at the top taken by a generous stranger... who apparently had no idea that the entire point of climbing this mountain is to get a great vantage of Machu Picchu?
Much better.
And below is our wonderful "after" picture. Notice my knee completely quaking after two days of battering.
Lesson: Sometimes climbing down stairs really is harder than climbing up them. But again, the fact that this trail was even built in the first place is a true testament to the power of the Inca people.
Address: Machu Picchu, Peru
Date of Hike: Monday, January 28th, 2019
Duration: 2 hours
Distance: Unsure
Difficulty: Very Challenging
✅Historic Site ✅Panoramic Views
🚫Shade🚫Picnic Area
Only NOW in my research for this post did I found out that this hike is called "The Stairs of Death"... like...
From inside the Machu Picchu site, you can see Wayna Picchu on the left. It's the mountain you've seen in probably every picture ever of Machu Picchu. Now it's hard to make out in this picture but there are actually stairs leading all the way to the top.
According to Wikipedia, the temple at the top of Wayna Picchu was the "residence for the high priest and the local virgins." So there's that.
Here's our "before" picture. So ambitious, so destined for a world of pain.
Only 400 people per day are allowed to climb Wayna Picchu. You can either buy a ticket for 7:00 AM or 10:00 AM. Since this was part of our one-day ticket to enter Machu Picchu, we did the Machu Picchu tour first, and ended with this rigorous hike.
There's literally a sliver of land that passes between Machu Picchu and Wayna Picchu's peaks, and once you get across, the climb kind of reminded me of a cathedral's staircase, just steep as hell with no regard for safety.
I mean... this is what the final 100 or so stairs look like:
Everything leading up to this was just switchback stairs that were wet with morning rain.
Here is a picture at the top taken by a generous stranger... who apparently had no idea that the entire point of climbing this mountain is to get a great vantage of Machu Picchu?
Much better.
And below is our wonderful "after" picture. Notice my knee completely quaking after two days of battering.
Lesson: Sometimes climbing down stairs really is harder than climbing up them. But again, the fact that this trail was even built in the first place is a true testament to the power of the Inca people.
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