The Climb

Taking one of 1,000 pictures on the summit

(Emma) Dad comes in to wake me up at 4:48am. I roll out of bed and go stand in a line. It is only Mom, Dad and me; the other three choose to sleep late. Out of the hotel, we see nothing. There is no line, so we start one. At 5:06, the next person arrives. Then more and more, until there is a line. At 5:32, we get a stamp that allows us to be part of the 400 people permitted to climb Wayna Picchu today. Wayna Picchu is a mountain next to the famous ruins of Machu Picchu. Its summit is almost 10,000 feet.

After a quick breakfast, we meet our guide, Francis, and at 6:08, we are off! We zip through Machu Picchu to the gate that leads to Wayna Picchu. We check in, signing our names so that if we fall off a cliff and die, they will know who it was. After checking in, we start our watches to see how long it will take us to climb 1,000 feet to the top! Stair after stair, step after step, our thighs start to ache. But I think about how this is a warm-up for our four-day trek in the Andes, and I keep going. Sometimes we would peer over the edge of the trail and see the river rushing 2,000 feet below. We see the top — ten more minutes! Just before the summit, we have to squeeze through an unknown tunnel. Finally, we stop our watches: 43 minutes! We were climbers #5-8 to reach the summit today, and I was the youngest.

At the top, we spend 46 minutes watching the clouds pass over Machu Picchu and the surrounding peaks. Finally, the clouds clear, and we take about 1,000 pictures. We want to beat the crowds, so we make our way down. Francis and I scamper down the very steep steps, while Mom and Dad take their time. 21 minutes and we are out the gates alive. Less than two hours is pretty impressive.