So we did it! After 45km of trekking, thousands of metres of climbing and descent, rain, storms, cloud and sunshine, sore legs and wobbly knees, we made it to Machu Picchu (first) yesterday morning at 6.30am...to find it completely shrouded in cloud.

Well it is the rainy season after all but it was quite the anticlimax, although the trek itself was fantastic - very, very hard work at times but a brilliant experience. You can see from the photos that the main attraction was a long way from its usual spectacular self.

Having said that, we still loved it and the clouds did give it an air of mystery. It also meant that other tourists were very thin on the ground so we got to see loads while we were there before heading to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of the mountain to try and take away the aches of the previous few days and prepare us for the excellent jounrey back to Cusco by train, collectivo and bone shaking bus.

Today we´re recovering, taking staircases very slowly and creakily, before heading to Copacabana, on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia by bus tonight.