Wayna Picchu or Huayna Picchu is the mountain you can see behind Machu Picchu in most pictures. Wayna Picchu means "Young Mountain" in Quechua whereas Machu Picchu means "Old Mountain". We wanted to go up this mountain to get a different view of Machu Picchu. We had heard that only few people were allowed to climb the mountain every day, so we booked places through the travel agent at the same time as we booked the whole trip. We didn't know it when we booked, but it turned out that this way we also got a free personal guide for the same price!
The guide came and picked us up at the hotel the morning after we arrived in Aguas Calientes. The three of us took the bus up to Machu Picchu. It is a completely different feeling to arrive to the old ruins by bus compared to getting there after having walked the Inka Trail. You have to enter and walk through Machu Picchu in order to enter Wayna Picchu. The guide offered to show us around Machu Picchu as well, but we declined since we had already been there the day before.
The amount of people who are allowed to enter Wayna Picchu is limited to 400 people per day. These are divided into two groups of 200 people, one starting at 7 am and one starting at 10 am. However, it seems that it is not too popular to go up this mountain as it was no problem at all to be among the allowed 400 either of the days we were there, despite the fact that there were an enormous amount of people visiting the main ruins of Machu Picchu. Well, we heard that there is an official limit of 2500 people entering the ruins each day, but this is rarely kept. Our guide told us that hikers from the Inka trail are not counted and not people going to Wayna Picchu either.
Apparently there is a mist over Machu Picchu about 300 days per year. However, this is mainly in the mornings and typically lifts after a few hours. We were lucky to have a perfect day with a blue sky when we arrived from the Inka Trail and to also see the ruins with the mist the day after.
When reading about Wayna Picchu, you are often warned that it is a difficult climb and that you have to be fit to make it. OK, it is a nice climb, but it's not that difficult. Simply by taking it slowly, basically anyone who is not too unfit can make it and enjoy it. It's not too much of a challenge after having just hiked the Inka trail. We almost felt like we were flying since we didn't have to carry our backpacks anymore.
Our guide noticed that we weren't getting tired so he started to speed up a bit. He basically didn't tell us anything about the place. Instead he seemed to be more interested in beating his fastest time to reach the top. Despite the fact that we stopped to take pictures everywhere, we only missed his time by a couple of minutes. When we reached the top, he sat down to rest and let us explore the place. He almost didn't tell us anything about the ruins or the Inkas during the whole tour. It was quite disappointing after having had a great guide the previous days.
Most people who enter Wayna Picchu seem to just go up to the top and then straight back down again after having explored the main ruins a bit. However, there is also a trail you can follow around the mountain. This trail is narrower and you can clearly see that fewer people follow it. It seems to not be taken care of as much as the other paths you can walk in the Machu Picchu area.
At some point you can walk, or rather crawl, through a short tunnel. At one point you had to climb down a steep ladder and sometimes you could see how the Incas had shaped the mountain into a walking path. There were also plenty of places with amazing views, often with a long ravine to one side.
The main attraction along this trail is the moon temple with its great cavern, as you can see in the picture below. The temple might not be too impressive after having seen so many other amazing ruins, but it was still nice.
Sometimes we stopped and just looked at the incredible landscape we had around us.
It was definitely worth it to stay one more day in Machu Picchu and climb Wayna Picchu. It was an amazing day and we were lucky to see the historic place both in mist and with a clear blue sky. However, it is impossible to get lost so you don't have to bring a guide, unless you manage to get one who knows a lot and shares his knowledge with you. Then it can be very good, since the Inkas were very interesting!
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