Inka Trail day 4 - Macchu Picchu

Our very last morning on the trail was the earliest with a wake up call of 0330, we packed up, had breakfast and were on the trail by 530. We only had 2 hours of hiking between us and Macchu Picchu and the excitement at camp was incredible despite the early hour. We got to the sun gate about 0700 right as the sun was coming up and we watched it light up Macchu Picchu, it was the most amazing sight. We would have loved M.P. anyway, but having done the trail and seeing it in this way made it such an awesome experience and made me appreciate the grandeur of it all that much more. We spent an hour taking pictures and then made our way down to M.P. As we walked through the gates Enrique welcomed us to his office and gave us a tour and history for 1.5 hours, we then had 2 hours to ourselves to explore.

Our first look at Macchu Picchu from the Sun Gate

of course my eyes would be closed...

we were witnesses to some frisky llamas and almost got ran over

more steps of course

Temple of the Sun

this tree was planted 15 years ago in memory of the only one and random piece of gold found while preserving the ruins

Temple of the Three Windows

the sun dial

Winayapicchu

Temple of the Condor

the condor head on bottom with the wings on top

sacrificial altar

dream achieved

After MP we took a bus to the city of Aguas Calientes where we had lunch and after got on a 2 hour bus ride back to ollayantantambo where we then got on another bus and had another 2 hour ride back to cusco. It was an exhausting day and I wanted nothing more than to take a long hot shower after 4 days of not and climb into my bed. Our group however was going out for one last night together to enjoy some guinea pig together and we didn't want to miss it!

sat right in front of me, took me no time to see teeth, eyes and little hands with claws and my desire to at least try it vanished. You couldn't pay me to touch that thing let alone eat it

this on the other hand was amazing and I have been craving it for a solid month

Enrique eating the brain, his favorite part

the actual pig that everyone ate. The consensus was that it is pretty gross! I could have told them that...

oh so tired