After getting off the train we walked through a market which surrounds the station to find our hostel which we had pre-booked in Cusco. You can imagine my disappointment when I realised we were staying opposite Hostel John, why hadn't I been given that as an option? We planned to go to Machu Picchu the next day but had been given numerous pieces of advice of how best to visit the site. With these pieces of advice in hand we knew it was best to buy our entry tickets the day before and rather than walk up to the site instead book bus tickets. We went to the tourist office and booked our entry tickets (I got a 5%0 student discount!) and then went to the bus stop to pre book our tickets for the bus. One of the pieces of advice we had been given was to get to Machu Picchu very early for two reasons, firstly there are smaller crowds and secondly it opens up the option of climbing Huaynu Picchu. Huaynu Picchu is the mountain often seen in the background of pictures of Machu Picchu. We knew that they only allow a limited number of people to climb Huaynu Picchu so we had to be on one of the very earliest buses. With this in mind we knew we had to have a fairly early night on our first of two nights in Aguas Caliente. Aguas Caliente is a small town a short distance from the Machu Picchu site which is built purely around tourism, because of this every restaurant you walk past has someone outside hounding you to go in. We eventually settled on somewhere to eat before heading to bed ready for the 4.30am alarm to ring. At 4.30am we jumped out of bed and quickly got ourselves ready to head to the bus stop. We were at the bus stop at around 5am but already found ourselves behind a couple of hundred people. At around 6am a fleet of buses arrived, each one with a capacity of about 30 people, and started ferrying people up the mountain to Machu Picchu. Although the price for the bus was extortionate but South American standards I can't say I wasn't slightly smug thinking about the poor souls walking all the way up to the entry. When we arrived at the site entrance we had to queue to get our tickets checked which is when I realised a snag - I hadn't brought my student card with me. When I got to the front I was made to pay the difference between the student and standard adult entry fee. What was slightly frustrating was that I wasn't told I was going to have to reproduce that card when I got to Machu Picchu. We were also told we couldn't bring in water bottles, food etc when we booked our tickets. When we first arrived I paid to put our bag in storage only to discover when we got in there that a) there was free storage and b) everyone else was walking around with food and water. However, the silver lining was that we got tickets to climb Huaynu Picchu. Frustrations were soon forgotten when we turned a corner and were greeted with the iconic image of Machu Picchu below us. It is very hard to describe quite how breathtaking the site was. There are very few things I can compare to seeing Machu Picchu for the first time, just seeing the cuts in the side of the mountain leading down towards all the ruins was simply outstanding. There is little known about Machu Picchu although it has been theorised it was abandoned when the Spanish invaded, it has also been suggested it was formed in the latter years of the Inca empire to try and preserve Inca culture. What is most amazing is that a site of such magnificence was only rediscovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham as he was searching for the lost city of Vilcabamba. After spending the first half of the morning walking around the site, taking our time to take plenty of photos, our 10am entry to Huaynu Picchu was approaching. We went back the storage room and got our water out of the bag and had some food before heading to the foot of the mountain. We had been told that it was a strenuous climb that would take around an hour. We set of at a decent pace following a fairly flat trail before arriving at the start of the incline. The trail has rough steps carved in to the mountain which you continually climb until you reach the summit. On the summit, which I am pleased to say Sue and I reached in 40 minutes, are some more Inca ruins and some spectacular views of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains. We spent about 20 minutes at the top before taking the almost equally as strenuous walk back down the mountain where at the bottom I paid ridiculous money for a bottle of water. Thankfully we had done as much exploration of the site as we wanted so we were able to head to the buses to take us back to Aguas Caliente. Walking around the site to get back to the buses was ten times as hard as it was before the climb, thank goodness we didn't do the 7am climb as I don't think I would have been able to appreciate Machu Picchu for the spectacular site it was. We got back to town and headed straight out for lunch and then to our room for a nap after our exhausting day. In the evening we had a simple meal before having an early night as the next day was going to be a very long one. In the morning we got up early to catch the train back to Ollantaytambo where we caught a minibus back to Cusco. We had an afternoon to kill in Cusco before catching a night but over the border to Copacabana in Bolivia where we were going to go to Lake Titicaca from. We walked around Cusco again before finding a little pub with WiFi where we could check our emails and have a good meal before heading to the bus station late in the evening. I will update you on Copacabana and Lake Titicaca soon.

John