To get from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu it is possible to walk but it's a couple of hours steep uphill and we decided to take the minibus instead. A dusty, winding road took us to the entrance. Having paid lots of dollars for our entrance fee and the bus to get up the hill, we thought it was out of order to have to pay to use the toilet too, but needs must!







We didn't make it in time for sunrise, but it was still early morning and the low sun lit the landscape beautifully.  
 
Machu Picchu is quite stunning. We're not sure which Inka's idea it was to build a city stuck on top of a mountain surrounded by even more mountains, but what a fabulous location they chose.

Our theory is that, after lots of wandering around and indecision, someone got a bit stroppy and said 'I'm fed up of this. If we don't build it here, I'm not building it at all... ' It's a bit like the way we've chosen where to eat sometimes.






The stonework is, nevertheless, incredible. It is possible to trek to and around the area and to climb another nearby mountain to look down onto the site, but we contented ourselves with five hours wandering in and around the Inka town imaging what it must have been like to build it and live there. And, of course, we took a few photo's to give you an idea of what it was like.








Later that day we made our way back down to the railway station in Aguas Calientes to make our journey back to Cuzco. It was soon pitch black and the sky was really dark and really clear with a fantastic view of the Milky Way. What a spectacular ending to a spectacular day!