Should You Hike Huayna Picchu or Machu Picchu Mountain?

When you visit Machu Picchu Mountain, the main attraction is the archaeological site. Here, where 90% of tourists go, but there is more. Towering over both sides of the archaeological site are two mountains. Huanapicchu, here, and Machu Picchu Mountain, here. Today we're going to climb Machu Picchu Mountain. Here we go. It's terrifying. I'm gonna do my best. That's all we can do. That's all we can do. 9,000 feet of elevation. 10,000 feet above Machu Picchu. Yeah. Beautiful, clear day. Unreal. Before we got on the hike, our guide told us that this trail actually used to be 70 miles and lead all the way to Cusco. And when the king traveled back and forth, they would carry him on wood slats, which sounds great to be carried, but I couldn't even imagine like the jostling and the bumpiness of that ride. To me, a physical challenge in the middle of a trip like this, instead of just the sightseeing. You know, down in Machu Picchu, you can always see more and explore more, I know, but just love the physicality of getting out on a mountain, getting up to a view, accomplishing something. Got a little strategy going here. Side stepping? A little side step. Okay. Use the the outer muscle. Got it straight on quad. Nice. It's my theory. Look at that. Machu Picchu in the background. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Slice through that solid rock. Whenever that was done, that was amazing. Well, my Sarah, how you feeling? A lot of nerves before. So many nerves before. Feeling good. Feeling accomplished. Can't believe I'm gonna make it. So glad I did it, but no joke. I mean, this is a struggle. It's awesome, babe. Hola. Hola. We're about 10,000 feet of elevation. Okay. About 2,000 feet to come up. I feel so light. And about two hours. What is your final thought here? Oh, just so grateful I did it. I didn't think I was gonna make it from yesterday. And yeah, just awesome doing it with a group. These are the things that you remember. So super stoked to be up here. And it feels like any other hike. Like, yay, summit. And then all of a sudden you look down and it's like Machu Picchu. Right down there. A lot of abilities could do it. I think so, yeah. It was mostly a mind thing for me that I was thinking. I mean, it was just step after step after step. So just one foot in front of the other and you make it up here. Such a good accomplishment, babe. After experiencing this hike, being up at the top of the summit, we would highly recommend doing this if you visit Machu Picchu. Next, we descended down the mountain, got onto the train, back to the town of Ayontaytambo. To our surprise, we not only had music, but entertainment as well. It's burning in my heart. Maybe it's love. It was so hot. Gio wouldn't let me buy water. We took the train back to Ayontaytambo to explore the archaeological site. This is a pass-through town for almost all travelers going to Machu Picchu. It is a special place that deserves a few days on its own. It has been inhabited since the 13th century and it is a great mix of travelers and the indigenous local culture. Wait, check out this moto taxi. Rims, spoiler, mud flaps, and a scorpion sticker. Shout out to moto taxi 1480. Next, we'll explore the archaeological site in Ayontaytambo. When I was in town earlier exploring, you see the beautiful waterways carved in and out throughout the town. They are actually a part of town which is so cool and it adds such an experience to it. They're not there by accident. They actually are a waterway to feed all of the farms down here below us. So it's a current system that works to get the water from the mountain all the way down into the field so they can use it for farming. So amazing. This area is just super approachable in Ayontaytambo, so if you have 90 minutes or an hour, highly recommend jumping in exploring a little bit. Tons to see. Very helpful to have a guide here. Our guide provided us with a ton of cool information about the site. Then, my friends, tragedy struck. I set my camera up on a tripod, turned around, and this, my friends, led us here to the middle of Cusco to try to find an HDMI cord to see if I can switch the settings to then look through the viewfinder. And here we are. Let's see what we got. Twenty minutes later, my optimism was beat down. No luck. No fix. I had a broken camera in the mountains of Peru. And that, my friends, leads us to here. Back to headquarters. HQ. Did I fix the camera? Eventually. Well, you'll have to wait for the next video for that. But I was absolutely heartbroken. I was actually way more surprised at how much a broken camera affected me because I was just in the middle of telling a story. I wanted to continue that story. So it affected me more than I actually want to admit. But we were traveling with some amazing people. Mac, pictured here. Owen, pictured here. From Bound for Nowhere. See, I have their patch right here to prove that I met them and support them. Well, they gave this to us, so they supported me even more by capturing the video. Even shooting video they weren't planning on. So I could continue to tell the story of our trip to Peru, which might not be important to some, but I wanted to share it because we still had a cooking class to go to. Cusco. Got to hike Rainbow Mountain. And we got to enjoy a meal in the Sacred Valley cooked by a local family. So next week I'll bring you that courtesy of Mac and Owen, which I will forever be grateful for them providing the footage for.