Ergh. 3am wake up call by a porter knocking on our tent. On top of that, it was raining. We all blamed Brad for making an offering to Mother Earth last night (in the tradition of the local mountain people) that was pretty crude. It went something like... (toss a capful of wine into the earth) "here mother earth, you dirty b****, suck on that!" (sorry nanna). Even though he is really inappropriate sometimes, brad is actually a really good person, so don't get the wrong impression. For example, last night he gave all of his thermals, beanies and gloves to some of the porters...people who don't have much at all. Even so, we blamed the weather on him. We started trekking at half four and had to wait at the first checkpoint till half five. From there, it was another hour of walking to the sun gate. When we got there, everything was still in a heavy fog (but at least the rain had stopped!!) so we waited for about an hour before getting a couple of photos and heading down closer to the site. As the fog lifted to reveal the sight that I have seen in so many books and magazines and postcards, none of us could do much more than stare at it with our jaws on the floor. To say that this place is breathtaking would be an understatement! Wilbur gave us a tour around the main parts, which was really hard as there are so many stairs and our leg muscles were seriously damaged from the last four days of walking. Just seeing the workmanship that had gone into the temples and houses was phenomenal. This place is so high up, it boggles the mind to think about how they got all the materials up. After the tour, we had just over an hour if free time before having to head to our bus. I went up to look at the inca bridge, which has been chiseled out of a sheer cliff face. There are still no railings and the drop is so far that it is like you are looking out the window of a light aircraft. Needless to say, I was pressing my whole body against the cliff as I scuttled along to take a look. That took a while, and I was the only one to go up there so I had to get my skates on to make the bus. Got there just in time and headed down to machu picchu town for lunch. Took a wander around the markets after that, where I bought a beautiful painting, and went to the train station. We had a few beers on the train ride home to celebrate, and then shared a couple of bottles of wine on the 2hr bus trip after that. When we got back to Cuzco we practically ran for the showers, as they were the first we'd had for four days. It was so good to stand under hot water!! We went and grabbed a quick dinner before crashing. So tired, but v happy.