Machu Picchu gets about 1.5 million visitors per year. To manage all these sightseers, they designated 3 Circuits with timed entry in order to preserve the site, control crowds, and manage the visitor experience. Yesterday we did ‘Circuit 2 – Clásico’ which takes you through the main part of the site – roughly the middle of the ruins. That got us up close to most of the buildings in the city.
Today we chose ‘Circuit 1- Panorámico’ which is higher up and offers stunning views and side hikes. This circuit starts by climbing stone steps carved from granite and laid by hand up the mountain.
Going up in the morning means being against traffic – we saw streams of hikers coming down at 830am after tackling the 4 day Inka Trail trek.
After about 15 minutes of these uneven 400 year old steps our Adventurers had a choice: continue up (and up and up) the steps to the top of the actual mountain Machu Picchu or divert to the top terraces of the site for more amazing views of the ruined city.
We split up. Brian, Suaram, Jessica, Budz and Tracy went up the mountain. Tiffany, CreeperKitty, Toaster_Ham and Rose went to the terraces.
The mountain climbers were met at the foot of the climb by a park ranger and a log book. We needed to provide our name, age, country of origin and start time for the climb. Eyebrows were raised when we were also asked to sign the log entry. Perhaps this indicates that we would be taking this hike willingly and with full knowledge that our names, age and country of origin would be spelled correctly on the death certificate. At any rate we were climbers #54-58 that day.
Budz climbs like a billy goat and Suaram climbed in her winter, fur-lined boots. Jessica is fit and hikes often. These three achieved the summit tpgether in about 90 minutes. Tracy and Brian took a little bit longer on both the up and the down portions of the hike.
The first sense that we were in for a challenge came when we started to encounter climbers coming down who each admitted that they hadn’t made it to the top. We took a number of pictures of the sites below on the way up for 2 good reasons. The views kept getting better but the main reason was that we were resting often to bring our heart rates down.
The climb starts at 7,972 feet (2,430m) so the oxygen levels are already a bit lower than we are accustomed to. We may call this a hike but it is more fairly described as a torturous stair climb where the non-uniform stair heights are between 4 and 16 inches high.
There were also many points where clutching the rock wall on one side was necessary because the other side of the stair dropped off into the abyss.
By the way, Budz never needed to stop to rest. Unlike Brian, his photo stops were legitimate opportunities to capture the amazing viewpoints.
The stair rocks were all stable and our confidence in the footing grew even though the skies seemed to darken with imminent rain which could test our resolve.
As we got closer to the top (or so we guessed), the climbers coming down told us that we were only about 20 minutes away. After several 20 minutes had come and gone and the summit remained out of sight, we stopped asking others.
Eventually, we heard Suaram call down to us from the top. She was encouraging and triumphant.
After over 2 hours of stair climbing, Brian and Tracy made it to the top to take a few photos with the other 3 Adventurers who were ready to head down.
The elevation at the summit of Mt. Machu Piccu is 10,111 feet (3,061m). This means that these Adventurers climbed the stairs equivalent to the third tallest building in the world (almost 2 Empire State Buildings).
The trip down took a bit less time but the wear on the knees, hips, and calf muscles was significant. We were all looking forward to some rest afterwards. Three of us finished the hike in just over three hours and two of us took a bit longer than 4 hours. We all felt a real sense of accomplishment.
Meanwhile, the non mountain climbers entered the Machu Picchu site several terraces above where we’d been on Circuit 2. This gave a great view of the side of the mountain hidden from yesterday’s photos.
Not only were there lots of great photo opportunities, there were llamas!
One of the llamas even gave us a picture perfect stare down pose. It seemed annoyed we were interrupting breakfast. Tiffany was thrilled to get a classic photo. The kids were just happy to hang out with some llamas.
After the terraces and a quick snack, the four adventurers headed back to town on the bus. Faced with 4 hours until the afternoon train we decided to add some side quests to our afternoon. We walked about 1.5 miles back to the entrance gate of Machu Picchu. After showing our tickets we walked another (flat-ish) 1/4 mile to a small museum focused on how the city was constructed. It had examples of large granite pegs used to hold up the thatched roofs of the houses and several granite bowls used for ceremonies and daily activities. So many things made from stone. It also depicted how the Inka had cut the granite free from the mountain – all by hand. Every single stone.
No photos were allowed inside the museum but the entrance showed a large 1912 photo of what the site looked like after Hiram Bingham and his team cleared away the jungle growth. It looked almost the same as what we saw yesterday.
Despite darkening skies and threat of rain, our next stop was the Mariposario Machu Picchu. A butterfly research and conservation center.
We got an English speaking guide that showed us the lab with butterflies from each phase of development – egg, larve, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly. We even got to see two released into the wild.
From there we went in the butterfly house so we could see them up close. Our guide demonstrated how they use their colors to camouflage to look like an owl or a snake to scare off predators.
As we left for the walk back, a bus came down the hill carrying our other Adventurers- perfect timing.
Back in town, we reunited with the mountain climbers, paused for Tracy to take one last group bridge photo and then got the train back to Ollantaytambo.
What an amazing couple of days!
5 Adventures Together 