We were woken at 4am, to make sure we were one of the first groups to reach the check point that opened at 5.30am. Once we had been checked through, it was a sprint - Bobby was on a mission - to the Sun Gate to get a view of Machu Picchu at first light. The climb up was pretty tiring, a vertical flight of 50 steps, especially when you are bloody jogging it! But when we got to the top of Intipunku (The Sun Gate), we forgot all our aching muscles, as this was our first glimpse of the whole of the Machu Picchu site - WOW!

After the obligitory photos, we took the path down to the actual site. This path had been closed up until 2 days before, due to a land slide and the path closes at 7am every morning for work to continue, so we were so lucky to be able to complete the original Inca Trail. When we got to the site we took loads of photos, then Bobby showed us around the site while it was still relatively quiet, before the first train got in at 11am with day trippers, so us hard workers get a little time alone first!

The site was apparently 'rediscovered' by Hiram Bingham in 1911 while he was on his way to Chile to talk about 2 famous South American men at a conference, when he heard about a possible Inca ruin, that could make him very rich. He changed his line of work and began searching for the 'Lost City'. In actual fact, a farmer had found they site 10 years before and had already sold a number of treasures to an Italian buyer, in order to support his family, his name and 1901 was carved into the wall, as mentioned in Hiram's first book on Machu Picchu - he later played this down, claiming he was the one to discover the site. There was also a couple of families living at the site, and it was a boy from one of these families that showed Hiram a number of the sites hidden beneath the jungle. Hiram Bingham began to clear the site in 1915 after gaining funds from Yale University and National Geographic. He announced that he found syphalis in a number of the mummies, in order to keep people away from the site. He used locals to help him clear the site and they later revealed that he had removed over 400 boxes of artifacts from the site and transported them through Bolivia and back to Yale Univeristy. He refused to admit this, and fled from the country. Around 5 years ago his grand daughter visited the site and promised to return all of the artifacts back to Peru, but Yale refused, stating that Peru didn't have anywhere appropriate to keep these treasures, even though they had just completed a new museum in Cusco for this very purpose! Peru are still in negotiations with Yale for the return of the artifacts, but Yale claims they now belong to them!

There are 3 theories as to why Machu Picchu was abandoned (the site was never completed). The first being that the men had to leave to fight the Spaniards who were then unable to harvest the food and later died from starvation (80% of mummies found were of women and children). Second was due to a disease. Hiram stated that this was syphilis, however, Peruvian scientists have proved this to be incorrect, finding only evidence of Arthritis and TB in the mummies at Yale. Thirdly, from the mountain opposite Machu Picchu, it is possible to see a big crack at the base of the mountain (Bobby was taken to the top of this mountain with a fellow guide to see this), and so it is thought that the Inca's could have fled after a huge earthquake hit the area.

We had time to look around the site by ourselves, which is HUGE, a lot bigger than we imagined. Many of the ruins are related to the three important beliefs of the Incas; Sun, Water and Earth. The site is surrounded by the Urubamba River (Sacred River) and surrounded by two mountain ranges creating two circles of protection and finally the sun hits certain points of the ruins at precise times of the year, relating to the special dates celebrated by the Incas. After a few hours browsing around and relaxing with the llama's, that roam the site, we headed down to the town of Aguas Caliente to meet for lunch. We said our thank you's and tipped the guides and our personal porters (we had hired a third of a porter each to carry sleeping bags, mattresses and clothes - which was a huge help) then caught the 5 hour train back to Cusco.

We had a fantastic time. The trek, Peru Trek and Adventure and Machu Picchu itself all exceeded our expectations and we were sad to finish - although our muscles were pretty happy about it! Anyone thinking of doing it, count us in!