So the inca trail didn´t quite go according to plan...I got a stomach bug the day before and made it only as far as the first resting point! GUTTED. Fernando, the assistant guide had to get 2 public buses, a mototaxi (like a carriage on the back of a motorbike) and 2 taxis back to Cusco with me. We sat on a rock at the starting point for nearly 3 hours waiting for my stuff, while he played the cena to me, what a legend!!

I spent the next 3 days in Cusco with Jackie and Jenifer who also didn´t do the trail. Fortunately I soon felt better and we headed out for Independence Day one night and indulged in Mojito´s at a really cool bar called Mandela´s!

Luckily I still got to see sunrise at Machu Picchu a few days later with the others- we got the first bus at 5:30am and climbed 45 minutes up to the sungate, where the hikers get their first view of machu Picchu. I´d only been there literally 30 seconds, still out of breath, when the others arrived from the other side! The emotional reunion almost made up for fact that it was pissing it down and too cloudy to even see Machu Picchu, haha!

We climbed back down to the main ruins, gradually getting a better view of Machu Picchu. After our tour me and Rick decided to climb Wayna Picchu (the mountain in the background of the ruins), while the others got the bus back to Aguas Callientes. Reaching the top, the clouds parted directly over Machu Picchu- we sat on a rock and savored the moment (with some warrior paint, haha). By the time we got back down the sky was a lot clearer and the sun even decided to make an appearence. So overall it wasn´t as disastrous as it first seemed- I didn´t get the journey but I got the destination...a destination that happens to be one of the new 7 wonders of the world!!!