The 4 day adventure that ends at Machu Picchu started with a 6am collection from my hostel. There were 13 of us in the tour group, 3 Peruvians (Alex, Roy and Alex), 2 English boys (Tom and Alex), an English girl (Katie), an American couple that wern`t a couple (Katie and Clay), a German (Janis), an American (Joy), a dutch couple (Morten and Ida) and me. We had a couple of hour journey to the top of a mountain where we unloaded and got on our rather unsteady mountain bikes.

We raced down the mountains, through snow cover, cloud forest and jungle for 3 hours or so. The scenery was spectacular and it was great fun. After a while though the road was blocked ahead. It turned out there had been a landslide in the night due to the rain which had blocked the road. We got there at 1pm in the afternoon and were told (along with the backlog of other traffic) that nobody could pass until 6pm to the anger of everyone.

For about 30 minutes we all sat around trying to figure out what to do and in ths time trucks full of rubble were coming in and out of the roadblock. However, after half an hour the public had had enough and simply caused a human roadblock refusing to move and blocking the trucks that were working from coming and going. A protest soon started and all 200 of us stood infront of the road block. After 40 minutes of protest and having stopped the work from continuining on the road people power pulled through and we were all allowed to pass through.

Soon after we arrived in a small village where we gathered for lunch. We were shown to our hostel after (which had no water) and killed the afternoon playing football in the centre of town with some local kids. After our 5 a side tournament the water was back on so we showered and had dinner together. That evening Roy showed me about 3 different and cool ways of opening beer bottles, all of which i have no chance of replicating. Apparently, he can even open 10 beers at once using only a towel!

The next day was the hike along the old Inca route. Inca`s never wrote anything down and they communicated between towns by sending messengers who would run sometimes for weeks to deliver the information. We started trekking around 6am up through the valleys and into the mountains. We were all in pretty low spirits in the morning as it was chucking it down and there were landslides literally happening next to us every 15 mintues or so. After a coulpe of hours it cleared though and we were making progress up the valley towards machu picchu.

Towards the end of the trek we had to cross the river, but the bridge had been washed away a couple of years previously. The solution to this predicament was a wire and tray! Basically 50m up there was a cable installed from side of the valley to the other, and under this was hung a large tray (for want of a better word), which was just big enough for 2 people to sit on. There was no machinery so we had to manually pull each other the 80m across the valley.

We trekked for around 9 hours in total and the reward was a visit of the hot springs - it was worth the trek, they were amazing. 3 large pools all at the perfect temperature with Andes mountains as the backdrop, it wasn`t bad at all.

Soon after we got a minibus for 20 minutes to the next town where again we had dinner together and were shown our hostel. That evening we all had a few drinks and met up with the other groups doing the same route. At one point we even moved on by 2 police with machine guns for drinking in the street. I ended up playing drinking games back at the hostel with a few of the others.

Next morning i was a little groggy but nowhere near as bad as Tom who was not in a good place. Fortunately, it was not trekking or biking today, but zipwiring so not quite as much concentration was needed. There was around 30 of us so there was quite a bit of queuing involved. First up was a 1km long zip line down the valley and we were all shown how to brake using our hands if we needed to etc... Next up was a tidy 1.5km long zip wire which seemed to go on forever and left people just as dots the other side of the valley. Somehow Alex managed to forget to secure his helmet, so unsuprisingly it fell off into the valley below when he was travelling 80km/h! On the 3rd zipline you could go in any position you wanted, so of course it was completely upside down, hands in the air, definitely one of the better ways to travel! Finally there was a 400m zipline that ended in a 20m rappel down to the ground, one of the best ways i have returned to land!

We all had a big lunch next to a railway line (weirdest place for a cafe ever) and then hiked for 3 hours along the railway tracks until we reached Aguas Calientes, the town right next to Machu Picchu. We also got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu on the hike as it hovered above us in the distance. In Aguas Calientes we were shown to our hostel and all had a meal together before hitting the sack ready for an early start for the main attraction.

Tom, Alex and I were up at 4.15am and hiking by 4.30am. Machu Picchu is on a mountain surrounded on 3 sides by a river. At 5am we reached the bridge that provides access and then started the gruelling climb to the top. There are over 2000 steps in total to Machu Picchu, and it was agony. The 9hr hike 2 days previous, no problem, but why you would chose to build a settlement that requires walking up 2000 steps is beyond me. Needless to say we reached the top at 6am just as the park opens and the busses full of tourists (who are not sweaty and dead) arrive. Willy (our tour guide) showed us around Machu Picchu for 2 hours and pointed out the Hitching Post Of The Sun, The Sun Temple and all the other major features before we were allowed to wander for the rest of the day at our leisure.

When we reached Machu Picchu it was relatively clear and the clouds were not too thick, but by the time the tour finished you could see about 30m and it was hammering it down so the first hour of freedom was speant huddling under a shelter - not quite what i had in mind.

It finally cleared though so after a brief stroll through the ruins Katie and I headed to Huaynapicchu (the mountain at the back of all those photos). Only 2500 people are allowed to Machu Picchu each day, and of them only 400 hundred are allowed up Huaynapicchu each day so i was glad i booked it 5 days previously in Cusco. First we climbed the baby Huaynapicchu which was meant to be a 45m hike, but took a total of 10 minutes. It was well worth the climb though as the view of Machu Picchu was awesome and in the 45m we spent at the top, only 2 other people made the climb to join us. After we headed up Huaynapicchu and up another 400 or so steps to the top. From here Machu Picchu looked like a small village just clinging to the side of the mountain, it was good to see the ruins in perspective and amongst all the high peaks that surround them. Having explored the ruins at the top of Huayapicchu we returned to Machu Picchu and spent the day getting lost amongst the different parts, there was even time for a sneaky siesta. Definitely, the coolest place i have ever had a nap!

At 3.30pm Alex, Tom, Katie and I made our way back down to Aguas Calientes where we rewarded ourselves with beer and pizza! We chilled out for a while and had seats on the 9.30pm train to Ollantaytambo. From here it was a minibus ride back to Cusco so i ended up returning to my hostel at 1.45am and was certainly ready for bed!