Salkantay Day 5... Machu Pichu

Weather..Foggy and first, and then blazingly hot for the rest of the tramping about.

Llamas... 3, happily grazing on the slopes of Machu Pichu... probably cheaper than a lawn mower. Will suggest that Dad buys some for this purpose, he could even buy them hats to match his favourite youtube video.

For some reason we have to start climbing to Machu Pichu at 4.30. This turns into a race, and half way up the mountain I am very sick, in the win or die mentality I fail... I am a failed extreme trekker and climb the rest very slowly. The Incas like their steps. I am not quite sure why, it makes climbing a lot more difficult, and a lot more tiring. However, finally all the motley bunch reach the top to discover that Machu Pichu does live up to its own hype after all. In the fog it is eerie, with temples carved out of the natural rock being broken up by perfectly carved symmetrical stonework. As the mist rises the mountains become black shadows against the cloud, perfectly guarding this hidden plateau from the view of the outside world. However, it seems word of Machu Pichu has well and truly reached the USA, and by 9am, an hour after the first train arrives at Agua Calientes the place is swarming with OATs, and the lesser spotted CCATs (clearly cleverer american tourists.)

The guide has persuaded us all to climb Machu Pichu mountain, and we head for the hills once more. Climbing Machu Pichu mountain turns out to be ridiculously hard core, and the extreme trekkers return. My legs are like jelly for most of the way due to steps jutting out into thin air on one side of the mountains... The Spanish guy eventually succumbs to his vertigo and is forced to stop three quarters of the way up, karma for all the McFlurry jokes he has been making since seeing my passport. The view from the top is spectacular, we can see where we have walked for the past five days... Turns out to be quite a long way.

Then began the long tramp down to Agua Calientes, in time for pizza, and a very very long wait for a train. I arrived back in Cusco at 1.30 am... partly by Peruvian railway, and partly by a taxi that got stuck behind a bus that couldn't fit down a really thin street. I am so exhausted that I leave my wonderful green hat in the taxi. This is a truly sad event, but it may save me an awful lot of teasing in England.