We woke up at 5am on the third day and after breakfast the two of us set out before the rest of the group (think Bobby felt sorry for us after being so behind on the second day). So off we trotted up the first steep climb to the ruins of Runkuracay, which was a small circular ruin, and it was great as we were the only two people there - turns out that it pays off to be slow!

We then carried on up to the second pass, Abra de Runkuracay at 4000m, to wait for the slow coaches! Most of this section was from the original Inca trail. Once the others arrived we all picked rocks to make a wish, by placing each rock on top of another, an Andean tradition, then we headed down steep steps and through a number of Inca caves to the ruin of Sayacmarca, meaning inaccessible town, which it was! We had to climb really steep steps to the ruin, which is surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs. The ruins have trapezoidal (?) walls as the area is in an earthquake zone. There was a section with alcoves which were used to house mummies that were kept in the fetal position, as the Inca's believed that you should enter the world and leave the world in the same position. These mummies faced the East so that the sun shone on them at dawn and they were paraded around the town during ceremonies. This has now changed, due to Catholicism entering Peru. It managed to take most of the country by scare mongering the Peruvians into thinking their children would go to hell if they weren't baptised by 2 months old!

We learnt that in Inca times there was a place to house girls for the purpose of marriage, singing and dancing and sacrifice, should something bad happen, like an earthquake. The girls were trained for this purpose and were oftern happy to be chosen, and their families proud to have their daughter offered to the Gods. Girls were to be married by the time they were 20 years old and the men by the time they were 25 years. The men had to go through training to gauge if they were a worthy husband; testing physical and intellectual abilities etc. They had three chances to pass these tests, after which they were destined to stay single forever, for having 'bad genes'! The tests took place in June so that future man and wife would then be fed well from June (harvest time) until September when the marriage would take place, they would then start for a family so that their child would be born in June, during the harvest to ensure the child would be healthy.

The Inca's worshipped many God's, one of which was the Sun, which was evident in many of the sites we saw. Positioning of the buildings were all related to the Sun, and also water, and their special times of the year fall on the Summer Solstice, Winter Solstice and the two equinoxes. The main ceremony being held on June 21st, when the sun is furthest away from the Earth. The Inca's believed that it was the Sun that moved around the Earth and held a ceremony at this time in the year to ask the Sun to return, this has now changed to the 24th of June to coincide with a Catholic holiday, by the church!

After the ruin we carried on along the trail through the Cloud Forest which is filled with orchids (Peru has over 120 varieties) and hanging mosses, tree ferns and flowers. We then climbed up to the third pass, at 3700m which had a view over the snowcapped mountains and stopped for lunch. After our 4 course lunch we began the steep climb down to Phuyupatamarca ruin, meaning town in the clouds. The ruin has 6 baths used for ritual worship of water and the closer the ruins are to Machu Picchu the more fountains there are, so that visitors were clean and pure upon entering the sacred Machu Picchu. Bobby then gave us the option of continuing down the usual root and the 2000 steps, or an alternative route that was longer, but would give us a sneak preview of Machu Picchu. We opted for the sneak preview, which turned out to be the best choice, as we passed through the jungle and loads of orchids and other flowers and a couple of other ruins. We also got to see Machu Picchu from afar which got us excited for the next day!

Along the path we met a man who was working on clearing another site that had only recently been found in the jungle, only a earlier. They think there could be many more sites still hidden. On the way back down the mountain to the campsite we passed through the Inca terraces, which were huge steps cut into the mountain used for agriculture. That night we had the usual belly full of food and a cake that had been made by the cook, in a tent, on a camp stove!!!??? After dinner we gave our tips to the porters and the chef for all their hard work - we actually think they are super human! Then it was an early night ready for the finale! Woo hoo!