We crawled out of bed as the 4am alarm sounded. Moving as slowly as our aching bones we allowed, we took breakfast in a semi lucid state. My first true memories of the day don't really get going until about 5am, and so I shall begin from there. Almost as much has been said of the beuaty and mystique of Machu Picchu as has been said about the swarms of tourists which supposedly devalue this specail site. We were aiming to catch the first bus up to the ruins at 5am...

Our Inca Trail didn`t get off to the perfect start. It was supposed to be an hours drive from Ollantaytambo to KM 82, the start point for the trail. About 40 minutes into this relatively pleasant journey, our driver pulled up suddenly. Our tyre had blown out about 5 minutes prior, but he only just realised. Said tyre utterly shredded, continuing on was an impossibility. Thankfully another GAP van with people about to begin the Inca trail passed us and stopped to ...