Machu Picchu

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The night before Machu Picchu, i decided to squeeze in a trip to the hot springs in Machu Picchu base town, as you do!! it was twilight so i watched the sun fading on another day whilst floating in the natural warm waters then got an early night for the 3.30am start the next day!! When the alarm went off i was really excited knowing that i would be sitting on top of one of the new seven wonders of the world in a couple of hours. i packed my day pack and waited in the dark lobby of our hostel for my fellow travelers. when they arrived we headed towards the centre of Machu Picchu town to make our way up to the Incan ruins. We arrived there before the sun rise but thick cloud blanketed the whole region so you could barely see a few meters in front of you. We wandered around for a couple of hours and our guide gave us a history of the ruins around us before letting us loose on our own. Myself and Katie, decided to make the hour long climb up to the sun gate to get there before the crowds. As we trekked the cloud started to burn off around us in the morning sun and the amazing view began to unfold. Literally it was breath taking. How the Incas managed to carry huge boulders up the mountain to create the iconic remains left today is awesome. The architecture they used which meant that the buildings have survived over 700 years of earthquakes, tourism and weather is astounding. It is said that you will not be able to visit Machu Picchu in the next 5 years because they plan to close it to foot tourism and are building a cable car to service the site instead. Considering only 80 people were said to have lived there 'back in the day' and over 2,000 people visit the site each day, it's obviously being worn away at such a rate, the government is concerned that the site be preserved as long as possible. Indeed, it's only because the Spaniards couldn't find the city that it has survived today...... Anyway, enough of my gushing, we finally made it up to the sun gate, which itself is a little disappointing, the view however, as you will see from the selection of the million and one photos i took, was outstanding. I had bought with me a cheeky can of Cusqueña, Peruvian beer, to celebrate the culmination of 4 days trekking and to toast Patchimama on her marvelous creation. It was a very sweet moment, cracking open the can at barely 9am in the morning!!! I left Katie and started exploring the ruins on my own, it was so peaceful up there despite the huge number of tourists about. At about 1pm i headed back down to the town to meet the rest of my group for some lunch before we got the Peru Rail train back to Ollantaytambo and then to Cusco. As we were eating lunch trains frequently passed through the centre of the town which was most bazaar!! We were all exhausted so the journey back to Cusco was quiet, but we did decided that we should go out for some drinks that evening to celebrate....... the boys were celebrating their swollen and blistered feet and we were just celebrating!!! Another amazing experience on my journey!

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