This morning, we didn't have a wake up call with hot chocolate as we had to get up so early. We set the alarm for 4am and had to be in the tent for breakfast at 4.30am. Not many people were that hungry, but we needed to eat to give ourselves some energy. They served us some pancakes, plus hot chocolate or coffee. It would be enough to keep us going until we get to Machu Picchu.

After breakfast, we began our journey to the final destination . We had to queue up at the checkpoint to get a stamp on our entry tickets. Lots of groups were waiting in the queue for even longer than us, and some had been queuing since 3.30am. When we left, it was pitch black and we had to walk in the dark. Luckily, we were still borrowing Mike and Steps's head torch, which came in really handy for us. Once we got in the queue at the checkpoint, we had to sit there waiting in the dark. I looked around us, and there was a long line of people all sitting there. It was kind of funny watching everyone sitting there waiting. Some had head torches on, some were dozing off, and some were just standing there. We must have been there for an hour so, and then it started to get light. Not long after, we set off trekking again.

As it was now daylight, it was much easier trekking to get there, it wasn't yet too hot, so was the perfect weather condition. We have to trek for around 2 hours to get to the sun gate, which is our entrance into Machu Picchu . Ernesto said it's an easy trek, so this was good to hear. We all set off and I was very eager to get there so I started walking at a fast pace, and left John behind for a change! I wanted to get there before all the crowds got in. We should arrive around 7am, so this should be before people arrive on the train. I feel much fitter now after trekking for 4 days, so I feel proud of myself for getting this far already. I plodded on and had to walk up many more steps, I thought the last section was going to be easy, but it was tiring hiking up all the steps. John caught me up eventually, along with Rachel and we were nearly at the sun gate. We hiked up the steepest set of steps yet and I was still motoring on up. Once we were at the top of the steps, it wasn't far to the sun gate. The weather was really foggy by now, and we couldn't see much. You are suppose to have your first sighting of Machu Picchu once you get to the sun gate, but due to the fog, we will not be able to see it yet. We walked through the set of ruins at the sun gate and had to re-group with everyone before we descended down onto Machu Picchu . There always seems to be many terraces at the ruin sites of Machu Picchu, so it wasn't foregoing one here either.

We waited a while before everyone in our group made it to the sun gate, once they did, we stayed there for a few minutes and set off to walk into the Machu Picchu site. By now I was so excited that I was finally about to visit the place i'd been wanting to go since I was a child. It just didn't seem real. I was slightly disappointed that we couldn't get our first sighting of Machu Picchu from here, but we will see it soon enough. The fog actually gives the place an atmospheric feel anyhow. Once we walked around the corner, towards the site, some of the fog did clear a little, so we got a glimpse of it through the clouds, but not enough to fully visualise it. I think it's going to be exactly as I imagine it to be, picture postcard perfect. We carried walking around the path, which is kind of on the edge of a cliff. There were already lots of people on the path in front of us, these are also people who are hiking the Inca trail . I can't imagine what the site will be like once all the rest of the tourists arrive. We arrived at a massive rock, it's a sacred Inca rock and you are not allowed to step on it, but John goes marching in and tries to stand on it for a photograph! The guide soon told him to get off there. I even had a feeling he wasn't suppose to step on it. After the telling off, we carried on, I was eager to get there now, and the tiredness was setting in.

Machu Picchu

So after hiking the last few metres, we were about to arrive at Machu Picchu. We had to keep walking downhill to arrive there, from afar the site looked huge. By now, the clouds were starting to part and I got my first real glimpse of Machu Picchu. I was mesmerised, and it did look exactly as I imagined it to be. There was still some fog, but you could see the site much more clearly. We queued up to go and get a picture at the iconic spot where everyone takes their pictures . When we were all queuing up, the cloud was clearing, but as we stepped up, it covered the sky. So at the point we got our pictures, you couldn't clearly see Machu Picchu behind us. I was a bit peeved about this, but after the tour from the guide, we'll go get some more pictures of the site. We also took pictures of some of the other people in our group, but it was just too misty to get a good shot. This is where we were suppose to get a group shot too, but due to the weather, we couldn't get the group pic we wanted. After this, we had to go take our tour of the site with the guide. By now, everyone was so tired, so I wished I could have taken the tour at a different time as everyone would get more out of it.

Machu Picchu was constructed under the instruction of an Inca emperor called Pachacuti during the 15th century. Legend has it that it was built to celebrate the defeat of a rival ethnic group. We got told that the Incan Empire grew so much in only a hundred years, from a small empire in Peru right through to Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina and Chile . The Incas land was named the land of four quarters, and Cusco was their capital. Andean people greatly looked up to the night sky, and also rivers and mountains. The milky way, known to Incas as the Celestial River, or Mayu is very important in South America.They could have adopted the four quarters from the division of the night sky into quarters, suggested by the positioning of the milky way. Inca people were masters of using and improving upon what they had learned from earlier people. They are best known for their engineering, roads, management, and of course the wonder of Machu Picchu, which was built only with stone, wood and bronze tools. With efficient organisation, the Incas expanded a small highland state into one of the largest empires in the world. However, the empire came to a tragic end when small pox, and other diseases killed the emperor Huayna Capac and two thirds of the population in 1526-27. In 1520, a fleet of Spanish arrived in Panama carrying diseases from Europe, which were previously not known in the Americas . Before the Spanish arrived in Peru, the diseases had spread, which eventually destroyed the Incan Empire. When the Europeans arrived, the empire had fallen into a civil war over who would be the new ruler. Machu Picchu was most likely abandoned at this time.

So after our history lesson about Machu Picchu, we were finally free to explore the site ourselves. By now, all I wanted to do was go to sleep, but we don't have much time here, so we need to make the most of it. We all wanted to get a group picture, as we hadn't had one done yet, so I collared everyone and asked them to come for a group picture, as by now, the clouds had gone, and it was a beautiful day. We managed to get everyone together, and got the group picture we tried to get from the start. After that, a few of us stayed together, and some went their separate ways. We got a few more smaller group pictures, which was nice. After we got the group pictures, we went off to explore the site. It's huge and probably takes the whole day to view, so we won't get to walk around the site, but will get round as much as we can before we have to leave for lunch . There are so many beautiful ruins to explore and you could snap hundreds of pictures. I would have liked to stay here for longer, but we have run out of water, so the first thing we need to do is go and buy some very expensive drinks from the Machu Picchu site. We carried on walking round lots of the ruins before we could get a drink, as there are certain arrows you have to follow. When we eventually made it out, we went to the cafe and bought a well deserved freshly squeezed orange juice and an ice-cream, which tasted divine after all that trekking and the hot weather. Next, we went to get our last passport stamp, and then it was time to say goodbye to Machu Picchu. It's been short and sweet, but it's been nice knowing Machu Picchu.

Goodbye people and goodbye iPhone.....

So we had to get the bus back to Aguascalientes, however, when we got in the queue it was so long. I thought we wouldn't make it back in time for lunch. But buses kept coming along every few minutes, so it actually went down quite quickly, luckily . I couldn't see anyone from our group in the queue, so I presumed everyone else was sensible and left way before us. But after being in the queue for around 15 minutes, I saw Rachel right at the back of the queue. I went down to get her so she could queue up with us or she would never have made it for lunch in time, she was really grateful for that. So anyway we finally got on the bus and it was packed full, we were running slightly late, but we should be ok for lunch. The journey took about half an hour to Aguascalientes. Because we were in a hurry, we rushed off the bus and tried to find the restaurant where we are eating lunch. We walked round and found it eventually. We walked in a bit late and apologised to everyone, they were fine about it and we all ordered lunch. Our guides when we arrived gave us all a certificate to say "I survived the Inca trail". We all got called out one by one and everyone clapped everyone. It was a lovely little ceremony. After this, it was only then that John realised that he didn't have his phone in his pocket . We checked around on the floor in the restaurant and looked in all our things, but we couldn't find the phone. It didn't seem that John was that bothered about the phone and I was more upset than he was. We said we'd go to the bus company after lunch to see if anyone has handed it in. So we just carried on eating lunch and then we thanked our guides for everything on the tour. Our porter was also waiting for us, so we had to tip him. After lunch we were anxious to go and try to find John's phone, so we had to say our goodbyes to everyone. They've been a great bunch of people that we've met and i've really enjoyed our Machu Picchu tour. It will be strange to be on our own again after this tour.

So either John's phone was stolen out of his pocket on the bus, or it fell out and was left on the seat. After we'd finished saying bye to everyone, we went back to the bus terminal and I asked in Spanish if anyone had handed in a phone. They all looked at me blankly, so i'm guessing it wasn't handed in, or if it was, they were just pretending they didn't know anything about it . That was a shame to have had the phone all this time and to have lost it right at the end of Machu Picchu. We have lost so many things on a bus now, it's really frustrating me. First I lost my walking boots, then we lost a day pack containing a guide book, then John lost his hat, I lost some clothes, and now John's iPhone. We will have to be more careful in future. We also went to the police station to check if it was handed in there and nothing had been handed in.

After all that commotion, we were shattered and we've got to spend a night here in Aguascalientes, so we had to look round for a hostel to stay in. We tried most of them in the high street and most were either fully booked or too expensive. We were so tired and couldn't be bothered to walk round loads, so when we found one at the right price, we booked in there. It was ok but nothing to write home about. It had a private room, shower, and even a television. I could have gone straight to bed in the afternoon, but we wanted to go out and get something to eat .

Festival

We went out and found a local restaurant nearby and went inside. Once we'd sat down to eat, we heard singing outside the door, so we turned around and there was a parade outside. Loads of children and adults were all dressed up in traditional and wacky outfits and were going mad dancing out in the street. People who were eating in the restaurant had to go and stand in the doorway, I carried on eating my dinner, and when I finished, I stood there to have a look what was going on. It was amazing to see all the local people dressed up singing and dancing. When we finished dinner, we went out to watch the parade for a while. We are dead beat, but it would be rude not to watch a bit of the parade while we are here. Our guide did say that there was some festival going on today and that it's the anniversary of Machu Picchu apparently. We are lucky to be here watching it. We walked around to the main square and there was even more people dressed up, singing and dancing. We saw a film crew there, but didn't think anything of it. We sat down on a bench to watch the parade and a woman sat near me and John. A few minutes later, i'm sure I saw her wandering hands try to go into John's pockets, so she was trying to pickpocket him. Perhaps his phone was pick pocketed earlier today. Luckily he didn't have anything of value on him. When we were so tired we could hardly stand, we decided to call it a night. When we got back to the room, I put the tv on and guess what was on the telly... Only the festival that was going on outside. I couldn't believe this was something going on national television and we were right there in the crowd watching it. We watched for a while, and we could hear the party still going on from our room until the wee hours of the morning. However, it didn't stop us from getting a good nights sleep as we were shattered.