Machu Picchu – Old Mountain

Words don't really do this bad boy justice. Neither do the photos (but of course we'll try to impress). Lastly, the random information that the tour guide makes up along the tour doesn't amplify the experience ('we think this was for this purpose', 'maybe they used this for this reason', 'we think this is the outline of a condor that they used to pray and sacrifice people to the gods', etc). Everything about Machu Picchu is absolutely stunning and amazing. The day we summited started a little foggy and a little difficult in the dark with only one flashlight for the four of us, but ended in pure magic. The day cleared up, and we marveled in the splendor that is Old Mountain. They refer to the mountain as old because they don't know the real Inca name for it and in keeping with the general unkown theme, the mountain beside Machu they call Young Mountain or Jueanu Picchu. Creative huh?

In order to climb the young guy, you have to be one of the first 400 people in line. Twasn't a problem for us since we were among the first 50 people to get in for the day. We got a ticket in for the 10am trek up the mountain after our ludicrous tour/guessing/hypothesis game of the ancient ruin. The trek up Jueanu Picchu would never have been allowed in any other country. We had to sign-in because they wanted to keep track of who entered the base of the mountain. The tour guide had factually told us that someone had gone missing last year and since then they wanted to keep track of everyone who came in and out. We saw a chick in clean white capris' applying make-up while standing in line, so figured it was just a silly mountain, no harder than anything we had already done. Boy was I wrong. The person who they couldn't find must have fallen further than anyone else, because people surely fell off this mountain and at least gravely injured themselves on a daily basis.

The mountain served as an Inca look-out/guard tower back in the day, but had been retrofitted with some handrails on the lower part of the mountain that afforded you the ability to grasp onto and pull yourself up. At the time I thought it was going to be much harder to get down. The closer we got to the top the more arduous the path became, and the more you reached out to grab whatever in order to stabilize yourself. We followed the signs through a cave and up to the top of the Young Mountain. The view was phenomenal, but I failed to snap a picture because I couldn't take a second to release my hands off the frail vegetation around me. As we reached the top of the mountain, we felt a funny substance dripping from the sky. A slight rain had begun. Not the type that soaks or drenches but the kind that makes the slippery surfaces more slippery. Perfect.

We scrambled back down slowly to find Hanna asleep on the very same bench that we left her. Nice hour and a half nap, especially since we woke up before the crack of dawn. Once we collected the team, we went up the hill for the 'facebook profile pic'. Everyone knows that spot where they see everyone taking the required picture. The one that looks like the ruins were photoshopped in.

Overall Machu Picchu was an incredible success. I mean just check out the classic pick we took here...Jueanu is that peak you see in the background below.