We didn't return to Cusco until about 11pm by the time we caught a train to Ollantaytambo then a bus to Cusco. We had a bit of a sleep in as we were still pretty tired from the preceding days. We wanted to get around and see a few more things in Cusco since we hadn't achieved much the previous time with Fergus being sick and having to get ourselves sorted for our Trek. We made our way up the hill behind Cusco to visit Sacsayhuaman, a fairly well known Incan site...

After getting a good nights sleep and cleaning up, we started getting organised for our 2nd visit to Machu Picchu. We went into the Ministry of Culture office to buy our tickets, and since we had unfortunately missed out on a ticket for Huayna Picchu we asked if they had any tickets that included Machupicchu Mountain instead. They did, so we purchased those. We knew the climbing times for Huayna Picchu were set, but the lady said we could climb Machupicchu anyt...

The day started super early at 3.30am. The plan was to have breakfast, get ready and get to the gate first. The control gate at Wiñay Wayna doesn't open until 5.30 but groups are let through in the order that they arrive. The aim is to be first through the control gate to trek the last hour or so of the trail in order to be the first to Intipunku, the famous Sungate. Our group was not first. In fact, we were about 8th. We stood in the line keeping warm in the ...

Early to rise to a nice warm cup of coca tea again, we wearily climbed out of our tents to a lovely view of Veronica, a nearby snow capped peak. We were tired and sore from day 2 but we had to press on. The uphill started almost immediately. We had about a 300m climb to the first ruins of the day, Runkurakay, a circular building that was believed to be a resting place for Chaskis (runners or messengers) on their way to Machu Picchu. It was a good place for us t...

Wake up time was early, though we were awake even earlier thanks to the local roosters. We were served a nice hot coca tea in our tents before getting up for breakfast. The valley was so beautiful and peaceful in the early morning but there was a flurry of activity with everyone packing up and preparing to set off. We had only about 10 minutes of relatively flat trail to get the knees warmed up before we started our 1,200 metre ascent. Today we would all walk at...