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Day four of the Inca trail and we wake at half four to be up fed packed and at the start of the trail for half five.... we enjoy our customary cup of coffee and chocolate in our tent before we head over to the dinning room tent for breakfast. Pancakes with dolce leche and some tea and its time to go. The weather hasnt really cleared since the night before, we had lots of rain and some thunder and lightning... so the ground is a bit damp and the sky is a bit grey. Everyone is still in good spirits and we head out on the trail again. The last days hiking is very short, only about 2 hours for most and ends at the Sun gate entrance to Machu Picchu (poorly named for the day)
We were the last group through the checkpoint on the trail, and Pat, Nick and me wasted no time in catching people up. We started out by just walking faster than most, and climbing and descending the staircases at a porter pace, but it inevitably escalated to a bit of light sprinting past people... dont worry it was very safe!!!!! About 200 people can walk the trail per day, and we must have passed about 180 of them as when we reached the sun gate there was only 20 people there who had been the first to set out on the trail. Unfortunately as we were both out of breath, very sweaty, and 30 seconds too late we just missed the clear sky and the first proper sight of MP. A french lady told us the sky had just cleared momentarily and they could see everything. We waited for the rest of the group to catch up, not too long (sorry honey), and we headed down to the main entrance to the ruins with Frank and Augusto.
We waited around here for a while, to catch our breath and get some food (and clean toilets), and we all enjoyed a triumphant smerk at the tourists in their clean hiking boots and bus passes (dont be lazy!!!!!). The place was already full of people and this was only about eight o'clock. The site itself opens at half five and people go to queue for tickets to get up Waynu Pîcchu (the young mountain). Some of the lads (especially Shannon and Beth), headed off to see if they could get tickets, but me and Reg decided to play with a dog instead.... enough climbing had been done, and I dont think there would have been room for us at the top anyway, especially with someone getting down on one knee and taking up the whole place (congrats to shan and beth :))
Once everyone regrouped we headed around the site for a tour with Frank, expertly delivered as always with his usual humour and style. He told us all about how it was found about 100 years ago, and that it had only been lived in for about 100 years too, and was never finished, fecking spanish again!!!!! (maybe, its not clear). After the tour, the lads headed up Waynu and we strolle around with Bri and Chris taking some cloudy pictures, then waited around for everyone else (they thought they would be late so they sprinted back down the mountain in 15 minutes, it should take 2 hours to climb). We all headed on the bus down to Aguas Calientes (Hot water) where our meeting point was. Here we had lunch, and then went to the Hot Springs, smelly but sooooo relaxing (I am rushing now as I am hungry and want to go get food). We got the train back to Ollantaytambo, then the bus back to Cusco. The day that started at half four ended at twelve midnight.... long and rewarding for me, long and sickening for Regina, later to be rewarding when she realised what she had achieved.
All in all it was an utterly amazing experience. Our tour group was called Peru-Treks and I highly recommend them. I absolutely loved doing this, and will do it again some day I hope. We made some great friends and will hopefully keep in touch with them, and perhaps even meet them again too on our travels. Our time at altitude has come to an end, and its off to Lima, then Chile and then New Zealand.... cant frickent wait to speak English to everyone
Bye from the Inca and the Ketchup people.... utqaymi purinay, qamllama allinlla
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