A 3.30am start.... no cocoa tea today but the excitement of Machu Picchu was enough to get me up and out of bed. Breakfast was baked bread and spread with some tea in the tent, we were also given a cheese sandwich for a snack. Off we treked down the trail for about 10minutes before lining up at the gate to be let in at 530am.

At 5.30 the gate finally open and we slowly walked through and begun hiking to sun gate. The first part was mainly flat and then the hills begun. After this was the gringo killer, a steep area of steps that were about 1m high each. This involved me using hands to help climb up the stairs. Once at the top, we could see the sun gate and a clear view to Machu Picchu. The view was incredible and breathtaking. After snapping some photos we hiked down into Machu Picchu itself.

Once there, we took some more photos before heading out the gates to the front. Here a couple of people got beer from the vending machine and there was a place to stamp our passports. Soon after this we got handed our tickets and officially went through the gates for our toue. We learnt about the person who found it and how the Incan's made the sun temple and water temple. We learnt about Inca life and why it was unfinished and how some of the damage occured. We then explored by ourselves, even finding a llama for a photograph.

Once outside we hit the bar and ordered a beer. The beer tasted amazing. Then it was time to line up for the bus down the mountain, the line was long and took about 20mins for us to get on the bus. THe road down was windy with buses coming the otehr way. There were a few times were the driver slammed on the brakes and we had to reverse up the hill so the buses could pass each other.

In the small village we met the rest of the group for lunch. At lunch I ordered soup, pizza and chcolate cake plus a pisco sour. We then walked about 500m to the train station and got on the tourist train back to Ollytytambo. We grabbed the stuff from the hotel and drove slowly back to Cusco and it was finally time for a shower, which was amazing.

For dinner a few of us got a taxi (2AUD) to the pisco musuem aka bar. I got some chiken strips and a pisco drink with condensed milk and baileys - yummy! Maybe here I should mention that I signed up to hike another mountain tomorrow with a pick up ar 410am... I think I might be crazy!