Sadly sam was sick again during the night, and although she obviously really wanted to go up to see Machu Pichu she hadnt had much sleep and our group had planned to get up early to see the sunrise over the site. I got up at 0600 and we took the tourist bus up to the site for about 0700. When we got there the site was shrouded in cloud, occaisionly little areas would be exposed as the clouds drifted about, offering tantalising glimpses of the site. What struck me was the amazing craftsmanship of the stonework in the Royal quaters. Bearing in mind they used granite as their building stones which is an incredibly hard rock, the joins in the bricks where faultless. When you then consider the scale of the place, also the fact its perched on the top of the mountain, it really is an incredible feat. It was however quite sad that in parts they were trying to reconstruct certain buildings, but rather than try to match the maisonary perfection as mentioned previously, they obviously hurridly put up walls using sloppy building techiques with loads of mortar between the stones, ruining the original 600 year old structures. The cloud gradually revelead the whole site, i was struck by the scale of the place, Apparantly at its prime 3000 people lived there. There are distinct areas. Terraced farming areas which scientist beleive were like a modern day research centre for the Inca people, you can still see the intricate irrigation systems. Then the royal quaters, the regular housing and then the religious areas where they made sacrafices to the Gods, possibly human !. It is also incredible that due to their worship of the sun, there are sundials carved from granite which when the sun hits a certain spot on the carving it indicates the appropriate solstice. We sat at a high vantage point trying to take it all in. It is an overwhelming place, mainly because its so difficult to comprehend what drove the people to build this amazing place under what must have been incredibly difficult circumstances. In its hey day it must have really looked like the home of the Gods as apparantly a lot of the walls were covered in gold. I went back down to the town at around lunchtime just as the massive hoards of tourists arrived.