Day 4: INCA TRAIL & MACHU PICCHU 'Magical' ___________________________________ SIG'S VIEW: The Last day and Machu Picchu. 4am Pitch black and we're up and ready to go. Feeling great nothing can stop us now! (can't it) que the tourch to break! and yes it was our only tourch! Never the quitters we set off for the last few hours of the trail sighted only by one mobile phone light! Strange but i can't see the Inca's struggling like this. 5.00am and Yes adding insult to injury we'd missed the gate to the last part of the trail! Closed! Gutted! Chomping at the bit we waiting every second the day and, much talked about, sunrise approaching! 5.30am it opened and the race began! fueled with enery sweets and a good cheek full of Coca we held our own and made it to the sungate. Much to our amazment there sat maybe 10 to 15 other stinky walkers all waiting as Machu Picchu was nowhere to be seen - the whole valley covered totally by thick cloud! We sat there too and panted, not sure if we we're happy or dissapointed! then as if MAGIC, the clouds cleared and The Wondefull Machu Picchu appeared!!! i Won't say much more, the pictures speak for themselves, but it really is a wonderfull place. You could say that if you walked 4 days to get to McDonalds it would be special but it really is! (Machu Piccu that is) After walking around in ore we decided to get the bus rather than walk down to Aguas Calentas, can you blame us, and we we're totally chuffed i'm sure Vic won't mind me saying that she got a little emotional. The Inca Trail is a BIG thing, 4 Days, High lows, hots colds, ONCE IN A LIFETIME (Until next time :) PS.Bless them Coca Leaves!! ____________________________________________________ VIC'S VIEW: Day 4 and the torch is broken. All I asked for christmas from my little sis was a torch and she bought me a shoddy excuse for a torch!!! At 4 am its still dark and you need light!!! Only kidding Katie, it was actually just the bulb and I stupidly left the spare one at home. But at 4am you need someone to blame! We started to walk with Jerome and Romy but really wanted to reach the sun gate before it got light. And so the marathon began. It started well but we soon reached soon extremly steep stairs, the steepest yet. We had to climb up and my fear of heights set in. But I could't slow down now and so I climbed on my hands and knees whilst we both sang "we are the champions!" Loco gringos!!! It worked and we were soon at the Sun Gate. It was thick with cloud and somewhere below us was Machu Picchu. About 15 other people were sat waiting and we joined them. About 5 minutes later the sun came over and the magical sight of the lost city emerged. It was amazing. It didn't look real. I couldn{t believe my eyes. For 4 long days we'd walked to see this and finally it was right in front of me. About 30 mintues later and Bonet, Jerome and Romy arrived. Even Jerome was amazed and happy he'd finally made it. As we walked down and got closer to the Inca city we all had a sense of relief and felt that we had acheived something amazing. We spent some time with Bonet walking around the sight and she explained all the different parts to us. Then we had some free time to explore ourselves. We didn't know where to start. There was just so much. Just standing and staring was fantastic. I'm sure we both had our mouths wide open. But soon our own Inca city was engulfed with fresh smelling tourists arriving by train from Cuzco. We knew it was time to leave and carry our smelly bodies back to Aguas Calientes to meet with Bonet. We spent a few hours in a restaurant with Bonet chatting and laughing about our experience. I throughly enjoyed myself and will never forgot this experience. I told Bonet that we may be back one day, but not too soon. We need a few years to recover! ------------------------------------------------------------