Day 2 at Machu Picchu was our last day.  We still wanted to see other parts of the city and had tickets to climb Montaña, double the height of Huayna Picchu, the mountain we climbed the previous day.

Our first day to Machu Picchu we learned that standing in line really sucks. The later you wake up, the later bus you take, and have less time in the morning to see the ruins without too much of a crowd.  We set our alarms for 3:45 but woke up at 4am. Brandon stood in line at 4:30am and was 4th in line behind some die hard tourists.  I got ready and ate breakfast, making sure I had everything I needed then joined Brandon in the line.  Like many others, the few in front of us were saving spots for their friends but we were still near the front on the first bus to the entrance gate.

When we arrived at the entrance there were about 15-20 people already standing in line.  They all amazingly walked up before the first bus!

Once inside, we quickly made our way up to the Watchman’s Hut so that we could complete the part of the circuit that we left out the previous day.

 

 

 

 

With most of the tours and visitors staying up at the Hut, there were very few people wandering the grounds and we even ran into some llamas.

 

 

 

Our next stop was the Sun Gate.  The sun was rising quickly and when we saw some ruins, we thought we had made it to the gate. We didn’t. But, it was still a good place to rest and watch as the sun slowly illuminated the city below.  We continued on another 20 minutes and was rewarded with a gorgeous view.

 

Finding Montaña was a bit difficult because we had missed the sign on the way up to the Sun Gate. We traveled back to the main area and kept a look out for the wooden signs along the way.

Montaña is no joke. Although the sign at the entrance says that the summit can be reached in 1 hour and 30 minutes, most of the online forums or blogs said that the strenuous hike is about 2 hours long. Well, with our tired muscles and limited energy, we made it up in about 2 hours and 10 minutes.

We had to take lots of breaks along the way to literally catch our breath.  When we hiked Mt. Fuji last year, it was the same kind of difficulty climbing a mountain in a high altitude. Montaña was only 3082m above sea level, lower than Fuji and lower than the city of Cuzco, however, the hike was difficult nonetheless.

Going down was much easier than going up. But, definitely hard to maintain balance. Plus we were exhausted. We did pass by a few people who were scared of heights but if you stay away from the ledge, the trail is quite safe.

Finally at the bottom, we just wanted to tackle the Inca Bridge before calling it a day and heading home. My only regret was perhaps not going to visit the Temple of the Moon on our first day.  It is another 1-2 hour long hike after Huayna Picchu and we were very tired after the hike. The Temple of the Moon is supposed to have the most intricate carvings and stonework in the entire city. Although one more day could have been nice, we visited and hiked all of the main attractions and were very happy to have explored Machu Picchu.

Tip for future travelers: Water, bug spray, and sunscreen were essential. We were both burnt even with reapplying sunscreen. Because of the high altitude, the sun’s rays are much stronger with less atmosphere to block the rays. Good shoes and snacks are also required!

 

 

Brandon did a lot of the planning for this trip and was able to work with an online middleman (months in advance) to purchase our Machu Picchu entrance tickets for the next two days.  Apparently, the official entity stopped selling tickets online due to credit card fraud.  We definitely needed to buy our tickets beforehand because we heard that tickets can sell out.  We also wanted to climb Huayna Picchu, which for an extra fee, allows only 400 visitors a day to climb to the top of the peak.

In order for us to get from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu we needed to buy a $19 USD roundtrip bus ticket to get up and down the mountain. We did not intend on completing a 2 hour trek up to the entrance of Machu Picchu and then another trek up Huayna Picchu.

Because our Hostel was so close to the bus station (about 2 blocks downhill) we woke up around 4:30 am since the first bus leaves at 5:30 am. We stood in line at about 5am and there were already 2-3 buses worth of people in front of us.

Once we drove up to the entrance, we stood in another line to get into the park.

By 6:30am we were through the gates and headed straight for Mt. Huayna (Wayna) Picchu.  Our tickets were for the earlier time slot that allowed us to be one of the first 200 people to climb the mountain.  Although the trail officially opened at 7am we wanted to get there early.

I did stop, however, to take one early morning photo of Machu Picchu before walking over to Huayna Picchu (the mountain to the right of the city).

We reached the registration hut at around 6:45am with 4 people in line.

The sun had still not come up completely and I took some photos of the area outside of the trail.

At 7am the staff opened the gates and had us write our names in their registration book. It took us about 50 minutes to climb to the top. Most of the trail were variations of stairs and rock inclines and with each of us carrying a backpack with lunch and water, we truly got a good stairmaster workout.

There were beautiful views along the way so we had to take photo and rest breaks!

Near the summit were these stairs. Later, we had to climb down all of these tiny stairs to return down the mountain.

Small platform near the summit. Machu Picchu looks so small from up here.

Before the summit we needed to crawl though a small tunnel…

…and fit through this skinny gap.

 

The summit was very beautiful. The sun was shining, it was a clear day, and it was cool at the top. From this view we could see the zig zag road the busses use to get up to the city and how expansive the terracing is.

We made it!

Although food is not allowed in the park, many hikers bring in sandwiches and snacks for lunch. We did the same, ordering a lunch box from the Tree House Restaurant, which they delivered that morning at 4:30 am! Our lunch consisted of a chicken avocado sandwich, homemade granola bar, dried fruit, pineapple juice, and something else I can’t remember.

After eating at the summit, we headed back down the mountain. We signed out at the registration hut around 10:20 am and went on to explore the rest of the ruins.

The grounds of Machu Picchu are actually set up as a loop to minimize the congestion of tourists travelling in two directions.  At one end and a good place to start is the Watchman’s Hut which then winds down to the different ceremonal areas then to the area near Huayna Picchu. The path then loops back to the entrance  through the agricultural areas. By 11:30 am we were pooped and headed back by bus to Aguas Calientes for some food and massages.