Since I was already missing the Inca Trail hike I was going to be damned if I was going to let a bunch of tourists ruin my Machu Pichu photos on top of it. Thinking myself clever I resolved to wake up at the crack of dawn so that I could head up at 5am and be waiting at the doors when they opened. Sadly… about a hundred other people had that same idea. While getting in was chaotic it was still quite empty as I was walking around.

I had bought a ticket to hike up Wayna Pichu (apologizes for all this spelling, too lazy to look it up) in the 7am wave. So I walked around for a bit and then made my way over there. The hike was arduous as you’re basically doing stairs the whole way up but it wasn’t long, I’d say it took maybe 40 minutes to get to the top. The views were very worth it too. I continued to follow the loop off the top of the mountain and fairly quickly found myself completely alone. I hadn’t done any research so I had no idea where I was going at this point but I figured it had to take me back to something I knew. So… on I went. This was actually the best part of the hike as no one else was around. But it seemed to add quite a bit of length as I later discovered I descended well below my starting point and so I had to climb back up to get out. By the end I was exhausted and pretty wrecked from tromping through mud, the cloud forest and… possibly… falling off a ladder.

Made it back and wandered around some more before heading down around noon or 1pm. I had some time to kill before my train back so I grabbed a huge lunch at Mapacho Craft Beer & Restaurant which was surprisingly good. I ate alpaca…  Then it was to the train station and a train and a bus back to my hotel in Cuzco by 9pm where I crashed immediately.

All in all, I have to say this is one of the few things I’ve seen that’s really lived up to the hype.