Day 6: Hiking Up Huayna Picchu

We woke up around 4:45 AM (Yes we jet-lagged ourselves throughout the entire trip) and lined up around 5:30AM for our bus ride up. We were inside the bus by 6:15AM and headed up to the mountain. So exciting! 

Our tickets were for the 7AM entry, and the walk from the entrance to the bottom of Huayna Picchu is still a good 15 minutes so we gave ourselves lots of time. Huayna Picchu isn't a very long hike but it's intermediate because of the altitude and the elevation. This is C's first major hike (and first major physical exertion, for that matter) since the ileostomy, so we planned to take it easy.

So only 400 people can hike up Huayna Picchu every day, and there are two entrance times, 200 at 7AM and 200 at 10AM. Tickets get booked up pretty far out, so it's important to book early. You'll need to bring your passport for sure. 

There's also a little mountain called Huchu Picchu that we didn't go up on, it was an option but C was mentally ready to do the harder hike up Huayna Picchu. 

We wore hiking shoes to go up, a backpack with water, our cameras and a rain jacket. I would say anywhere in Huayna Picchu, to make sure everything is covered so that you won't get bitten by sand flies. 

We reached the summit in 45 minutes! It was such a gorgeous sight. It was cloudy that day, so it wasn't hot at all - it was the perfect temperature. It didn't start raining until 11-12nn. We realized that the weather forecast at Machu Picchu is super unreliable. The guide told us about it, and we confirmed it once we actually got here. 

We felt so blessed to be able to go on this awesome trip with C feeling so much better, it's truly just by God's grace! A few months ago, before the surgery, we wouldn't have imagined C to be able to get back to a normal, or to be well enough for the trip. In fact, we were seriously considering not to go at all. But we were able to visit this beautiful place and we're just so, so blessed. 

Finally, we decided it was time to head down. There's just one little section that is a little tight, but it was totally doable with some squeezing, haha. 

Then, we headed back down to the bus, of course there was zero wait times at around 9, so that in itself was pretty awesome. Before we went on the bus, we made sure we got our passport stamped (self-stamped) with the Machu Picchu stamp to signify that we made it to this gorgeous place. 

Love, 

C&K