Do the Machu Pichu!

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We had all agreed to have an early start to catch a bus to Machu Pichu early enough to avoid some of the crowds, so a bleary eyed crew met in the hotel lobby at 5.45am ready for the 6am bus! It seemed a pretty misty morning but we squeezed into the bus anyway and set off on a twisty journey up and up into the mountains. Eventually we emerged at a very crowded entrance to the Machu Pichu site. It seemed everyone else had had the same idea!

We queued up to show our passports and tickets and then climbed a few steps, the others' muscles complaining at yet more steps - think they had quite a few to negotiate on the Inca Trail while I was laid up in hospital! We sat out on one of the terraces and watched the fog! And watched it some more! We watched it for a long time! We were so glad we got up early!

Eventually the mist did start to lift and amazing Machu Pichu was revealed. What an incredible place and so wonderful the Spanish didn't get their hands on it and trash it like all the other Inca sites. Once we'd looked around the site with our group we split up and I headed off on a big hike up to the Sun Gate. It was lovely to be able to do some proper walking after my enforced extended stay in Cusco instead of doing the Inca Trail. On the way back down I happened upon the geocache I'd been hoping to find - yeahhhh!

And then all too soon it was time to head back to our hotel and start thinking about packing our bags for the long journey back home. What a fantastic trip (we'll forget about the hospital bit). At the start I said all I knew about Peru was from Horrible Histories and Paddington Bear. Wow what an amazing amount I found out about this fascinating country in just three weeks. A huge thank you to the Adventure Company for making this such a great trip, to Max our tour leader for providing so much fascinating information, the many guides we had at the different sites we visited and not forgetting the lovely people in my group that made it a such pleasure to share my experiences with.

Goodbye Peru. I wonder where Lottie will be let loose next?

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