Dec 24: I've Had Enough Vertigo for One Lifetime.

Many people have told us that one of the best things to do is to cliumb Wynu Picchu (the peak you see in the background of every picture of Machu Picchu - “Wynu Picchu” means “New Mountain”; “Machu Picchu” means “Old Mountain”). However, they limit it to 400 people a day starting at 7AM, so we decided to get all our bags packed, a 6AM wake-up call, and have an early night. We awoke early to a torrential downpour so just went back to bed instead. (That goodness we weren't hiking the Inca Trail to wake up to this!)

After an extra hour's sleep, a hearty breakfast, and the purchase of a couple ponchos from the hotel, we decided to try the climb in the rain. At 9AM we were only numbers 97 and 98 of the day, so obviously we weren't the only ones to decide to lie in a bit. As the rain had subsided to a light shower and the jungle heat started to kick in, we found ourselves as soaked with sweat on the inside of the ponchos as we were with rainwater on the outside, so we ended up taking them off after twenty minutes. The climb up Wynu Picchu was steep and precarious, but the view from the top was spectacular.


After a difficult descent, we headed up the other side of the ruins to the famous Sun Gate where those hiking the Inca Trail get their first spectacular view of Machu Picchu. Henceforth, we shall only refer to it as the Cloud Gate:


We couldn't see a thing from up there, though typically once we decended back to the ruins and looked back up, the clouds had burnt off and there was a perfect line of sight down to the ruins. :(

Now we've cleaned up in the hotel's day room, then had a good lunch and are killing time drinking in the lounge waiting for our bus to arrive to take us to our train, where the plan is to have a good dinner and then kill time drinking until we arrive back in Cuzco.