Packing for Adventure

This first picture is maybe my favorite picture of the trip. It is right after we made it to the bottom of the hike to the top of Machu Picchu. My legs were complete jello by the end, and I took a tumble on one of the stairs. I’m so grateful I didn’t tumble all the way down! But you can see dirt on my arm from the incident.

We were trying to figure out what to do, we still had half the day ahead of us by the time we finished the hike. We wanted to hit up some spots we didn’t get to on our tour the day prior, and we wanted to do some more exploring on our own of some of our favorite spots from the tour.

We made our way over to the Incan Bridge. This was another hike, and we were worried we couldn’t handle it. Despite Chris having fared better than me, his legs were sore too. As we were at the entrance to the hike to the Incan Bridge trying to decide what to do, another couple from Canada was just finishing the hike. They assured us it was a 20-minute easy hike. Additionally, they had done the hike to Huayna Picchu that morning.

I appreciated their insights about Huayna Picchu. They said it was pretty brutal, and that they had to climb on all fours at some parts. Once they got to the top, they weren’t as impressed with the view as they’d hoped to be – they said the view you want is the view OF Huayna Picchu, not from it, like what we saw at the top of Machu Picchu.

Despite what they had to say, I still wanna do it someday. But it gave us the courage to go see the Incan Bridge.

To be honest, I was a little let down – mostly because we were not allowed to walk on the bridge, or even get close to it. I get it, it’s old and very small and I’d probably fall off and die, especially with my jello legs. But still!

They think it may have been like an emergency escape route. Standing there, I couldn’t help but wonder what really lay beyond this bridge. Were there desperate flights into the unknown, narrow escapes under pursuit, or untold stories forever lost to time? Was this escape path used when the Spanish came? Did anyone survive on the other side? Maybe we’ll find out one day.

After this, we made our way through the ruins we had seen the day prior. The trails of the ruins are one-way, so once you start you have to keep going. At a certain point we decided our legs were just done, so we opted for a short cut.

This shortcut involved walking down all these terraces that take you back to the exit. I had seen these terraces the day prior and thought they looked fun and I hoped to be able to walk down them. That was before the hike! It was very painful walking down these terraces!! But even so, we loved it, and it was a memorable way to make our exit.

With that, we said goodbye to the ruins of Machu Picchu, ready to continue our adventure in other parts of Peru.

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