At 6am on a very cold morning, we arrived to the mountain 'village' of Cuzco, fully prepared with our Peruvian hats and gloves! Em´s uncle is chief of the police there so he kindly booked us a hostel linked to the council there which we didn´t have to pay for! We spent the 1st day acclimatising as the altitude affected us both. It didnt help that our hostel was at the top of a very steep hill, but it did mean amazing views from the balcony! We also spent the day trying to sort out how to get to Machu Picchu, as we could either go with an organised tour, costing 150pounds for a day, or make our own way there like the Peruvians do, costing 70pounds. We chose the latter of course! So we set off at 5am in a local taxi for an hour and a half to Ollyantambo with a couple from Lima. Once we were there we got our backpacker train ticket to Aguas calientes. That journey took another 2 hours, and once we got there we bought our entry tickets to Machu Picchu and got the bus to the ruins. Once we got to the ruins, we straight away made our way to the registration office to we could sign up to go up to the top of each peak. In peak season, there are around 2,500 visitors to Pachu Picchu. We went out of season so there were only around 500 people that day, and only about 200 of them actually wanted to climb the peaks so it was nice and quiet! Em was so not prepared for the climb that was ahead! There´s not proper path and the shear drops next to you are mind numbing! We made it to the top after about an hour, and it was so worth it. The views were breath taking, Em was shaking from how high we were though! They are talking about putting a cable car up to the top of Wayna Picchu, but we really hope they don´t because it felt like kind of a priviledge to see Machu Picchu from another angle after such a hard climb. It took just as long to get down because of the unclear and ridiculously steep steps! We then wandered around the ruins, taking too many photos again! With both of us shattered from the climb, we made our way back on the train, bus and taxi to Cuzco. We are now in Lima, after a hot, sweaty 22 hour bus ride and waiting for Javier (Em´s brother) to arrive!