Inca kings and celebrity gods

The 4am wake up call came too soon and, bleary eyed, all 19 of us met downstairs to try and eat a giant buffet breakfast when it felt like it was only a couple of hours ago we were having pizza together! The early start was all to make sure we caught one of the early buses up to Machu Picchu. With so many visitors every day, the tourism is run like a military operation and there are only so many buses each hour to monitor the number of people arriving at the site at any one time. We blundered down to the bus stop at 5am and couldn´t believe the number of people already queuing. Clearly Victor and Puma, our guides, had done this many times before and as promised we easily got on the 3rd bus.

The mist hadn´t lifted yet and we wove our way up the road in eerie fog. Sometimes we could see the rugged cliffs that surround Machu Picchu and sometimes they were totally consumed in the cloud. It was really atmospheric and only added to the excitement. Machu Picchu has, for me, always been a "must go" destination probably because of it´s relevance to the summer and winter solstaces (my birthday). I think I´ve always had some silly idea that it could be a spiritual home for me! However, we were bracing ourselves for the site being overwhelmed with tourists and losing most of its atmosphere.

It didn´t disappoint. Yes, there were lots of people there (even at 6am) and yes, its expensive and a bit commercial. But when we stepped through the low stone doorways and got our first sight of the amazing city, I truly got a "take my breath away moment". It is like nothing I´ve seen. It out-Wats the Wats at Angkor and the temples in Thailand. It´s beautiful and an amazing feat of construction. The buidlings and terraces look like they have literally been carved from the rock face.

Before we could enjoy it too much, we had to queue for a second time to try and secure tickets that would allow us to climb Waynapicchu - the huge mounatin at the side of the site. They only allow 400 people a day to climb up yet, thanks again to our guides know-how, we all got tickets to go. We could then enjoy a tour with our guide Victor who had a wealth of knowledge about the site. He showed us the different windows that allowed the sun to shine through exactly on the winter solstace. He explained the importance of the Southern Cross to the Incas and how they had carved stone "compasses" into the buildings to pinpoint the constellation. He walked us through the layout of the site and how the entire structure faced east but was also arranged in the shape of a condor. We also got to see how the Inca temples had three layers, one for the underworld (the past), one for the human world (the present) and one for the spiritual world (the future). It was a really fascinating tour and Victor took great pride in sharing his knowledge with us.

At 10am, we (Jess, John, Paul, Guy and I) stepped out of the past and entered into the commercial world that was the cafeteria (well we had been awake for 6 hours by now!). While it felt a little strange to be sipping on a coffee in a cafeteria nextdoor to an ancient Inca site, at least the powers-that-be had kept the two well separated in order to preserve the sanctity of the ruins as much as possible. And while we discussed our new knowledge about Inca gods, Guy spotted a living god just a few feet from our table! Jesse Spencer a.k.a Chase from House a.k.a Billy from Neighbours was close by chatting to his girlfriend!! This was enough to send me and Jess into a frenzy of girlish excitement. As the girls at home will remember, we all had a crush on Jesse when he was in Neighbours and he looked even more lovely in the flesh. Chicken that I am, I wasn´t going to go up to him so instead employed John to act as my undercover papparazi photographer and leant him my camera to take surreptitous pictures of him. Of course they weren´t that subtle and Jesse clocked us pretty quickly. Luckily he and his girlfriend seemed to find it funny more than anything.

To avoid getting John slapped with a restraining order, we headed back into the grounds and prepared ourselves to climb Waynapicchu. The mountain sits to the north of the site and is nearly 400 meters higher than Machu Picchu so it was a tough climb - and definitely not one for vertigo sufferers! The steps are pretty steep and slippery in places so we took it carefully. Guy was determined to be the first one of us so lept up like a mountain goat while I puffed not too far behind. The higher we got the more spectacular the views over Machu Picchu became. We could see the entire site from where we were and could easily spot the condor shape. It was really amazing. At the top, you really got a sense for how high we´d climbed and it all felt a bit precarious so we gingerly started our descent. It didn´t help that John and Paul were making us laugh on the way down so we had to doubly concentrate! Check out the stomach churning pictures at http://gallery.mac.com/guypattison!

Knackered but particularly pleased with ourselves for all making the climb, we caught the bus back to Aguas Calientes and had a giant lunch and a couple of beers to celebrate the end of the trek. It had been an awesome day and a great hike through the Sacred Valley to get there. Machu Picchu definitely lived up to its huge reputation!