Day 19

A very early start today, had a light breakfast and then torches in hand as set off! My legs and feet are KILLING today so very glad we haven’t got too far to go. After 10 mins we arrived at the check point and had to queue for the gates to open at 5.30am. The gates opened and we headed off with the rest of the people from the Inca trail. This is the first time it has felt very busy on the trail. 6km of up and down and 5 minutes of the most treacherous stairs. We had to go up on hands and knees to make sure we didn’t fall. And then, we made it to the sun gate. We were really lucky it was incredibly clear and got a great view of Machu Picchu. We settled down to watch the sun creep over the mountain, illuminating the ruins and framing the scene beautifully. Lots of groups sped down towards Machu Picchu I guess to beat the first train in but I really enjoyed having the time at the Sun gate. After a while we then headed down to the ruins which took us another hour to go down. We got to the classic “post card” spot and took our pictures. Then taking a seat Miguel explained to us about Machu Picchu. He then gave us a tour and we saw the queens house, kings house, and other ruins. It was really interesting and the fact we had hiked for 4 days to get there made it way more rewarding. I think if we just took the train it would have been cool, but a bit disappointing. It was very busy with LOTS of Americans it was quite hard to get away from them. I do think the Inca trail is more about the journey than the destination, even though the destination is beautiful.

We then had a quick lunch before heading back on the long journey to CuscoLeggi altro