Today we had a lie in - 5.30am... We breakfasted on pancakes with 'GAP' (the name of our tour company) written on them in a kind of caramel syrup (well, Andy ate mine too). Compared to yesterday, today's walk was relatively easy. We started with a 150m fairly easy climb. This part of the trail has it's own subtropical mirco climate with lots of interesting plants and trees. Then we had to descend 900m down wet and slippery stone steps. This bit was quite scary. We had lunch at the campsite where we would have stayed that night, had we been able to. It was quite a large building with a kicthen, lots of dining space and a bar. It was also full of people. It was quite a shock being in such a noisy environment after the peace and quiet of the previous few days. Unsuprisingly, we had soup to start lunch off...

After we'd eaten, we both had bursts of energy, perhaps brought on by the food, or perhaps because we knew we'd nearly finished?...It took us 55 minutes to get to Intipunka (the sun gate) for our first view of Macchu Picchu. At first it was covered by cloud and we couldn't actually see the ruins so we weren't sure we were in the right place... Once the clouds had cleared, the view was amazing. We sat and enjoyed the view whilst waiting for the others members of our group.

It took another 30 minutes to get to Macchu Picchu, where we took some photos before getting on the bus down to Agua Calientes. The bus journey was 400m down round lots of scary hairpin bends.

We got to stay in a hotel with hot showers! We also went to sit in the local hot springs - very soothing on our aching limbs!

More soup for tea... We got beer this time too, as the our tour group had the use of a local restaurant.