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 eaten up by the snake of trekkers behind. "Get a move on", "there's a gap!," etc. I complete the trek/sprint without a break to reach Intipunku before sunrise.

The first sight of Machu Picchu is stunning, resting on the hill top in the middle of an amphitheatre of mountains. As it turns out the Sun Gate has loads of room for all the trekkers, so I'm not sure why there was such a race, and everyone is around an hour early for sunrise anyway.

As the sun hits the site we move on down to the ruins themselves. The buses have already started to stream up from the town of Aguas Calientes and for the first time on the trail we see people walking in the opposite direction. They're huffing and puffing on the 30 minute walk as I dance down the final path after of 30km of hiking. It's surely the only place on Earth where being smelly and dirty makes you feel better than everybody else.

The trail enters the site at the point of the classic postcard view. Everyone's seen the pictures and I won't fail to do it justice with some badly written description. All I'll say is that the view is worth every step, slip and stumble. Much of the site is astrological, and almost every rock seems to have some 'on June 21st' type of story associated with it.

Aguas Calientes, also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo, in the valley below has virtually no cars, just lots of buses serving Machu Picchu and a train to Cusco. The train runs along the main street in the town and it's a little strange to see a train going right past me as I'm eating my lunch. I enjoy a much welcome shower, although the water temperature is a little less reliable than I would expect in a town named Hot Water.