Waynapicchu

 After a night in Aquas Calientes, having visited the incredibly cheap but good hot springs in town, after which it was named i headed toward conquering the Young Mountain, or Waynapicchu, in quechua. I hopped on the bus and in about 20min of winding roads was back at the sacred site of Machu Picchu.

 The ruins looked as majestic as always. I was headed to climb the mountain in the background, covered in slight fog. The entrance to Waynapichhu is situated in the back of Machu Picchu so you have to walk through it once more, and i couldnt resist snapping a few more pics.

 The climb was rather rough with some portions so steep that you had to hold on to the metal cable railing chained to the rock. However, without my heavy backpack that i did the Inka trail with, i was almost flying past those steps. On top of the mountain is an actual fortress, walls of which you can see in the background of this photo. It really is amazing how the Inkas carried these building blocks all the way up to form a sort of citadel for eyeing enemies or just overlooking their lost city.

 The top of Waynapicchu is based on these terraces that open up a gorgeous view of the lost city:  Frankly, you only realize how high you are from how small Machu Picchu seems from this height. THe winding road on the left is how the busses bring thousands of tourists every day to the site.

 Im sleeping a bit =) probably tired from the climb.

Proof that Ive been there =)

 With my heads up in the clouds...

 This rock is literally the top of Waynapicchu...i just couldn't resist climbing it. But you cant stay there for long, the insects literally eat you up.

 View onto the Urubamba river that flows around at the base of the mountain. The terraces below span about 50m of vertical drop. its really amazing.

 At the base of the mountain there's also a cave, la grand caverna, another inkan site. At first the guards wouldnt let me go down there since it was late and the site was closing in a couple of hours. Given that you almost have to get to the bottom of the mountain it takes a decent amount of time, but i convinced them that i would make it there and back. They believed me =) so i started my descent, it was AMAZING! this is the real rainforest, with countless butterflies, flies and a rich variety of insects all heading my way. There were no more tourists ahead of me, so i just made a run for it with a huge smile on my face =)

 The road did not dissapoint. Countless steps from Inka times curved, dropped and crossed through small caves in the granite wall.

some more shots of my flight down the mountain, it took about 30 min of pretty steep descent.

The cave finally showed up with a few other visitors. The stone in the foreground is a sacrifice stone. Apparently some Inka leaders were mummified and buried in this cave.

Reflecting upon life and the magic of this place...also resting before ascending back up the mountain.

 The ascent took a descent 1h up thousands of steps through the rainforest...it was brilliant! This is a shot of the type of road we had to tackle.

 You can see Machu Picchu in the background!

Some more shots of the crazy steps with the abyss on the right hand side.

The rest of the day was somewhat uneventful with a train ride back to cusco and my arrival into the village of Tika Tika in the vecinity of the city for some construction volunteering work =)