Machu Picchu - pretty spectacular and spectacularly pretty!

After an excruciating 4.30am wake up call, we headed up the path to Machu Picchu. If you do the hardcore Inca trail you come over Macchu Picchu mountain and see the site at dawn spread out below you. As we took the other option we did the gruelling path up about 400 metres from Aguas Calientes. A path of steps, many of which have been used as toilets at some stage or other (at least once that very morning) which lead right up to the site. Mere mortals take the bus but not us, no, we did the hardcore route in order to see the sun rise over the Gate of the Sun where the Inca-trailers would arrive.

Frankly I got to the top of the path with burning lungs and aching legs and couldn't really care when Kieran called out for me to look at the sunrise over the mountain! We couldn't see Machu Picchu then anyway, we were just in the car park!



Once our friends had caught up though we entered the site and after getting a Machu Picchu stamp in our passports (!) and climbing yet more bloody steps we were faced with a wondrous sight.



The Incas built Machu Picchu around the 1400s and occupied it until the 1530s when the Spanish arrived and they abandoned it and took to the hills (lucky they did or the Spanish would have razed it to the ground) never to be seen again. It was "rediscovered" by an American archaeologist in 1911 and so began the love affair that we all have with this incredible place. Incredible because it is huge and built on the top of a bloody mountain (for God's sake!). But also because although much of it has been (not so faithfully) reconstructed, in fact there are large areas of original buildings and it is a warren of temples, agricultural and domestic dwellings, main plazas and tons and tons of terraces for agriculture (which they had to transport the earth for the crops ...crazy incas).

We had a rather unconvincing guided tour and then most of the group decided to climb the even higher mountain that towers over MP to get the ultimate view of the site. We were broken after the climb up there in the first place and so opted to go round the site a second time and listen in on many more guided tours and learned a lot more than the first time (we also learned that every guide tells a different story and not to be convinced by any of them!).



After a good 8 hours (and still only 2pm) we called it a day and went back to Aguas Calientes. We bade goodbye to our tourmates as they were all going back to Cusco but we opted to stay another day and make the most of the site. I mean if it takes you 3 days to get there you need to spend at least 2 days enjoying it, right? We checked into a lovely (expensive) hotel and got a thoroughly good night's sleep, at least 3 hot showers each, before getting up at a much more civilised time of 8am and getting an even more civilised bus back up to MP (what were we THINKING walking up the steps???).

We headed straight to Waynupicchu, the mountain overlooking MP and trudged up the very steep but satisfying path to the peak and revelled in the view. Actually it was a bit hazy so photos weren't brilliant, but you got an incredible view of the surrounding mountains and the sense of achievement about getting up the damn thing was well worth it.



Then we climbed up the much smaller Huchapicchu which also overlooks MP but from a much smaller distance and height (there was a mission impossible bit on the climb that was fantastic...K), where the photos were stunning and the whole site was laid out in magnificent detail for our eyes only.

We had planned to head up a little of the famous Inca trail to the sol gate but instead were content just to sit in strategic locations around the place, nibbling on snacks and just soaking up the atmosphere, before heading back into town for our train home.

Machu Picchu is such a famous site that we felt cautious about it not living up to expectations. And it is completely different from what you expect but it is not disappointing for it and made the 3-day trek well worth the effort.