Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today, just want to be a part of it...Yes, I'm leaving Massachusetts for New York City. The taxi ride to Boston South Station is pretty hairy as my driver doesn't seem familiar with the concept of arrows. On multiple occasions he pulls over directly in front of a sign with one arrow to Boston and one arrow to New Hampshire, and asks me to describe which way he has to turn. Miraculously, I arrive at Boston South Station a litt...

There's a tight change of plane at Miami Airport, the plane is slightly delayed coming into Miami, leaving just 90mins to change. By the time I've been suitably checked that I'm not an illegal immigrant, don't have any drugs or agricultural products, and answered twice to US officials about where I got the money for this trip it's a dash across the terminal to make my flight to Boston. Once I arrive I meet my cousin at his apartment in Lawrence, about 30 mins ou...

Not much going on today, just a long time in Lima airport. There's a massage centre where you can see all the Inca Trail just-about-survivors getting their backs sorted out. In the communication centre there is an American man in the booth next to me trying to book room 104 of a hotel: "Un Zero Quattro, Si? Un Zero Quattro, Si?" as he expertly combines four languages in four words. I've also been here long enough to see the staff at the cafe change shif...

The first bus up to Machu Picchu leaves Aguas Calientes at 5:30am. I'm not on it. Nor am I on the second. There is a giant queue of around twelve bus loads, containing around 500 people who are waiting to get up to the ruins before dawn, and ironically, the crowds. Hawkers are pushing their goods to the crowd, you can buy almost anything from an SD memory card, to a water holder, to a piece of cake. The reason I'm in the queue is that I want to climb Wayna Picch...

Awoken at 3:00am by banging from the nearby kitchen. It's every man for himself today in the big race to Intipunku: the Sun Gate, where we get the first view of Machu Picchu. The gates of the campsite don't open until 5:30, but some groups are waiting by the gates at 4:00 to be first in line. It's a sea of bobbing headlamps in the dark as the two hundred people wait for the gates to open. A quick pace is set, and the less-fit, disorganised and snap-happy are eat...