Day 236 - Machu Picchu, Peru - Friday 8th June 2012

Breakfast at 5:00 am, which is probably one of our earliest starts, but it was going to be well worth it as today we are going to get to Machu Picchu for sunrise!! After scoffing down our breakfast we caught the first bus up the steep incline to the gates of Machu Picchu. I always thought that we would be walking to the summit but the road up is just a boring switchback and there is nothing to see, plus we has already walked 60km in the last four days and up to 15'500 feet - so the bus was a welcome relief!!

After a bit of a queue, then showing our tickets at the gate (Soph's was wrong, her name was down as Sue Flint!! Ha ha), smiling at the strict security and trying to keep the five mad Norwegians from wandering off, we finally entered the famous Inca city. After a short ten minute walk from the main gate and about a sixty metre hike we rounded a corner and suddenly the pathway opened up and there in front of us was Wayna Picchu; we were all standing on the spot where the famous pictures of Machu Picchu are taken. In fact the famous picture is actually of Wayna Picchu, as you are standing on Machu Picchu when you take 'that' picture. The views were amazing; we were there so early that the sun was rising fast and burning the mist from the mountain. Some people (Americans) were annoyed that there was mist and cloud covering the middle section of the mountain, but Soph and I thought it was perfect and added to the atmosphere - It was almost as if Wayna Picchu was rising from beneath the clouds. We then began our two hour tour with our guide Henry; he took us to the Hut of the Caretaker of the Funerary Rock (a restored building with a thatched roof), the Sacred Plaza with views of the Cordillera Vilcabamba in the distance and Rio Urubamba below and the main gate to the city. The tour was really interesting and covered most of Machu Picchu and even more about how the Inca's lived and worked. Machu Picchu was (relatively recently) "discovered" by American historian, Hiram Bingham, in 1911 while searching for the legendary "lost city of the Incas". Hiram Bingham and his local guides stumbled across the site which was then covered in thick vegetation and was later cleared revealing the magical mountain-top archaeological site and opening up the possibility for archaeologists to conduct research on the site by 1915. Although there are a lot of theories and educated guesswork on what Machu Picchu's function was, it is still unknown - I think this makes it even more interesting. After our tour we said our goodbyes to Henry and then explored on our own; by now it was 10:30am and the sun had completely burnt the mist from the mountain enabling us to get that perfect picture shot of Machu Picchu (too bad most of the Americans went home and missed it!!). After taking it all in, we then started the hour and a half return trip to the sun gate. The sun gate is where people doing the classic Inca trail enter Machu Picchu; the views were fantastic as it is quite far away meaning you can take in the absolute vastness of the site. We took our walk back and a final look at Machu Picchu and then headed to the exit to get our passport stamped; it wasn't until then (when we looked the stamp in our passport) that we realised it was the hundred year anniversary. Knackered, we boarded the bus back to town and had some well-earned lunch with an Inca cola to wash it down (Inca cola seems to be the favourite drink of Peruvians - it's bright yellow just like the glow in the dark Peckham Springs water from the classic Only Fools and Horses)!! After lunch we when back to the hostel, washed, packed and meet the lads at the train station for our Inca rail back for an hour and then two hour bus journey to Cusco. Once back in Cusco we were starving again, now we usually always eat the food of the country we are in or at least at one of the local restaurants but not today. We headed straight to the only English restaurant / pub in Cusco where Soph had a roast with a cup of English tea and I had pie and mash with a beer!!! It was amazing!! Then we slept….. a lot!!!

In conclusion Machu Picchu was out of this world and well worth the four days trekking to get there! Whilst we're here we'd like to give a little mention to Reckitt Benckiser Company who ran a Facebook competition called 'Experience of a Lifetime' and as part of this have just sent one lucky winner on the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu experience in Peru. While the winner enjoys their Experience of a Lifetime, they will also be raising money for Save the Children as a direct donation of $1 will be given to the charity by Reckitt Benckiser for every picture the winner can persuade people they meet along the way to upload off them onto the Experience of a Lifetime website.

How do we come into this you might be asking?! Well unfortunately we didn't come across the winner on our trek so instead we're getting involved by mentioning the great work the program is doing and also by uploading the pictures of ourselves at Machu Picchu which qualifies for a donation of $1! If you want to check out the details and support the program you can track the winners and follow their progress as they trek around the world via a GPD device linked to the Experience of a Lifetime website. The website has a dedicated section for each winner where they will be blogging about their experience, posting snaps and uploading videos. The website address is http://www.experiencerb.com/

The remaining Experience of a Lifetime winners will be taking part in the following trips later this year: A Trek round Morocco, The Great Wall of China, Mount Kilimanjaro and a cycle around India so keep your eyes peeled!