Peru Part 1.5: Huayna Picchu Hike With My Besties

On our last day with the Idaho Condors, Lisa, Lauren and I went with the group to Machu Picchu (by train--yes, yes, the same Machu Picchu we took 4 days to hike to the next week).  We DID NOT tour around Machu Picchu, because we knew that the boys would be mad if we did that without them, but we did take advantage of the opportunity to hike to the top of Huayna Picchu, which is the big mountain you see standing behind the Machu Piccu ruins in most any photograph you see of them.

This hike was HARD.  It took us about an hour and twenty minutes to get to the top, and the hike basically consisted of stairs going straight up the mountain.  These stairs must have been built by people with very long legs and very small feet, because they were STEEP and NARROW.

To help myself get to the top, I kept thinking about the part in "Watership Down" when the rabbits first find the down, and they are climbing to the top of the hill.  The music on that part is so beautiful, as the rabbits keep yelling encouragements to each other, and once they reach the top, the music is exultation, and Blackberry says, "You can see the whole world!"
Really, from the top of Huayna Picchu, I think you CAN see the whole world.  Here's how it looked to me:

The very best part of this hike, to me, was getting (safely) back down to the bottom, and then looking up again.  I could not believe that I had just climbed to the top of that mountain.  It was amazing to me.  It was really an incredible feeling to look at something I had accomplished just by taking one step at a time. 

Coming up next: Peru Part 2: Inca Trail Hike to Machu Picchu.
Cheers!