machu picol - 4340m

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the mountain we look at from our room everyday. Every morning when we wake up and open our eyes, that's the mountain that greets us. We told ourselves that we must conquer that mountain one day and ascend to the cross on top of it We finally picked up enough courage to organise a hike up Machu Picol over the weekend. The day started with beautiful weather, not too cold or warm, just right. Twelve of us (including our guide, little Daniel, and Memo) set off with great enthusiasm and energy. The first 15 minutes were enjoyable and everyone was still laughing and chatting away. However, the joy didn't last very long once we hiked up the mountain vertically (literally)!!! We were huffing and puffing, trying to catch our breath, and the smiles left our faces. When we got close to the peak, there was no path. We were just climbing up the sheer face of the mountain vertically and clinging onto the grass, hoping that we don't miss a step and slip off the side of the mountain. Can you see the pain in our faces in one of the photos? We had to stop every 5 mins to rest and catch our breath, and kept telling ourselves that it can't be that far away if we can see the cross. By the way, Daniel the little boy didn't even puff for a second! How embarrassing... We did made it to the top of the mountain after 3 hours of very tedious hike and everyone was completely exhausted. Machu Picol is ~4300m above sea level, which means we hiked up 1000m!!! We were so proud of all of us. The views were amazing and very rewarding. It had a 360 degree view of Cusco city and the surrounding mountains. We were very surprised to find lighted candles at the foot of the cross when we got up there, which means someone hikes up this mountain daily to light the candles!!! We fully enjoyed the view from the top of Machu Picol and had a picnic. We started making our way down when dark clouds started covering over the cross. It won't be fun descending the steep slope in wet weather. Thank goodness the weather stayed fine. Descending was so much better even though it was very slippery at parts of the mountain. Enjoy the photos of our amazing hike up and down Machu Picol. By the way, Alvin's altimeter watch shows the graphical representation of our ascent and descent of Machu Picol.