When you take your trip to see Machu Picchu (cheap flights to Peru) you're really going to want to make the effort to scale the lonely mountain that appears in the background of every Machu Picchu picture. The mountain is Called Wayna Picchu, and from the top you are afforded an excellent view of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains. However, that's not to say that the actual scaling of Wayna Picchu is easy, since it isn't. In fact, there are a couple little segments like the one shown in the above photo where you have to kind of shimmy your way through a pretty tight space. In that above image, my wife is emerging from one of the two caves you have to pass through on your way up Wayna Picchu. For my money, this cave is the worst of the two because it takes some real twisting and contortions of the body to get through. I've never heard any stories about anyone getting stuck in this cave, but I wouldn't doubt it if it were the case (Ok, honestly it's not that tight since I can fit through it and I'm 200 lbs on a light day, I think you'd only have trouble if you were in the 250+ range, and then you probably wouldn't be going on a two hour hike to the top of a mountain anyway).
There are other ways to get to the top of Wayna Picchu without going through this cave, but they involve a lengthy hike up the back of the mountain which is, in itself, pretty exhausting. But the effort is seriously worth it since the view from the top of Wayna Picchu is really beyond anything you can describe, check it out on your next trip to Peru (LAN Flights)!
You said it all! I'm linking here from my Wayna Picchu post in a couple minutes ;-).
ReplyDeleteThe path up/down the back of the mountain was a killer. After hiking down to the Temple, the climb back up to where it meets the Wayna Picchu trail was almost as much as climbing Wayna in the first place.