This was the Machu Picchu day - as you'll see from the photos! Seems like everyone travelling in Peru has MP as their major aim - almost seems a shame for the rest of the country. So everything is centred around the Inca trail, the Inca ruins and the big place itself. We took two early tuctucs to the station (only 2 minutes!) and boarded the Vistadome Valley, a comfortable train with skylights to see the views. And you definitely need them - on the hour and a half journey, you're presented with an amazing vista of towering mountains as the train weaves its way alongside the urumbamba river through the deeply cut valleys. MP is in the jungle, so the vegetation changes as you get closer. By the time you get to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu village) you're in cloud forest not quite as dense as we had it in Pachijal, but with a canopy just the same, rising up into the highest mountains.

MP is on an outcrop in the middle of a large circle of mountains, and Aguas calientes is a town which looks like it's just cropped up to service the needs of the visitors. Everything is a restaurant, hostal or souvenir shop.

We checked in to the fantastically named Gringo Bills, then had a couple of hours to kill so the kids hit the pool table! We decided against the swimming pool at the hostal, being a bit small and freezing! Everywhere advertised wood fired pizza for lunch so we had one, but decided that Andean cheese just didn't hack it, and so we've abandoned pizza until the cheese changes! Suzanne decided that she wouldn't give up Inca Cola just yet though, as she seemed happy enough to be drenched in it courtesy of Derry's waving arms! It's a strange brew, we guess limited to Peru - bright yellow, full of hyper children ingredients and tastes of cream soda.

Then it was a bus trip (Siena's most comfortable ever, apparently, back of a bouncy bus winding up a horrifically narrow one way track - or two way if you're a MP bus driver!) to the famous new world wonder, Machu Picchu. We picked up a guide (Esteban, who was reasonably useless, it transpired) and a fellow traveller, Kit, from Hawaii who wanted to join a group. This isn't the place to try to explain MP, but when you walk around it you realise it's much bigger than the postcards suggest, but more spectacular for me is the surroundings - the sheer scale of the mountainous region all around, the depths of the valleys and the bizarre nature of this highly finished village all on its own miles from anywhere but up the side of a reasonably impenetrable mountain!

We walked around for a couple of hours, seeing many of the temples, special rooms and learnt a little but felt that we only scratched the surface. The kids had seen enough, though, including the pair of condors (a rare sight apparently, bringing luck). By this time we were amongst the last on the site, as most of the tours had departed for the daily train back, and it felt a much better experience over the last half hour - the rest of the time it was a little touristy - queuing to get the same photo . Every now and then you came across someone on a perilous precipice who had just sat down to draw, read, write, contemplate or marvel at where they were. If you do south America it's well worthwhile just to have seen it in the flesh. At times it's quite dangerous, no handrails or safety stuff, but some huge steep slopes and sheer drops, slightly surprised you don't hear of more accidents!

We returned to a very quiet Aguas Calientes- we stayed because we thought we'd take trips on both days, but the prospect was unlikely even though there was some interest in climbing up to Hyanu Picchu (the high up adjacent peak with spectacular views over MP). The early start time seemed to be the biggest damper. If we were alone, Suzanne and I would have definitely done it and revisited - which would be my recommendation for anyone contemplating coming here.

It looks like most restaurants do their trade during the day, we couldn't quite see how the town made it commercially, there just weren't enough people there to make it work! There are plenty of workmen though - ferrying wheelbarrows backwards and forwards to work on a big building site just in front of our hostal which looked out onto the main square. They broke down rocks with a hammer and chisel ( I guess they just can't get diggers in). We also witnessed the fishing out of all the fish in the fountain - which looked like a very bizarre activity until we realised they were cleaning the fountain!

The evening was nicely rounded off by trying out a chinese restaurant - pretty much the first we've seen - and fairly successful. Kids tired out again - they must do nothing at home, seems like every time they take a small walk they're out of it by 7!

The next day, 13th, was unspectacular. We played more pool, chilled out, contemplated what it would have been like to have climbed again today - with a little regret, knowing it's unlikely we'll ever get here again, but one of those compromises you make travelling with young children.

The train back to Ollanta was less spectacular (sad how blasé you get about the amazing views so quickly, but yesterdays had been one of wow, wow more and wow wow!, so I guess the opposite is true for the return journey!)

Our taxi back to Hostal Marani was fairly swift but a bit wayward - especially when I had to keep the driver awake! We dined at the Andean Grill - Suzanne had had her eye on it from the start, and it didn't disappoint - "the best spaghetti alfredo ever" (Siena!). Finn and Siena had a particular eye out for sew on badges from various countries - Siena for those she's visited, Finn for anywhere with a football team he's aware of!

It feels like the end of a major part of the trip - it hadn't seemed that way when we planned it but it certainly feels like the second "highlight" has been reached - the first being the Galapagos generally. Who knows what to expect next ......?!