One of the top attractions on my Latin America wish list has to be Machu Picchu; one of the seven New Wonders of the World, and the fourth one that I have visited. However, before I indulged myself with Inca culture, I went to stay at my second Loki hostel as I had so much fun in the one in La Paz.

Many people had warned me that this Loki was located atop a mighty hill with many steps to climb before you reach it. For anyone who is considering not staying there due to this "massive hill", don't be put off - this is one of the biggest overstatements I've heard in a long time... even at altitude they are no problem to scale.

When I arrived I quickly found Pete and Phil who I had met in La Paz - no surprises they were hanging out in the bar area. Phil promptly challenged me to a game of pool as we exchanged stories about Rees after discovering through the wonderous Facebook that he is a mutual friend of ours. Phil's main curiousity was " how can you go out with someone like that?" - which I can only assume is in reference to Rees' record with the ladies! Although the table was rather small and had a mind of its own, I still spent many hours around it over the coming days as we were joined by Tom who had finally recovered from scaling the volcano near Arequipa, and then shortly after Mark and Goliath arrived to make up almost a full reunion of our La Paz pool crew. Over the course of those few days we were joined at "our" new table by various randoms, each with his version of the rules. So, to clear things up I wrote our version on a blackboard - hopefully this will remain in place for years to come, or at least weeks.

Whilst locked away in my new Loki vortex I got my first Loki tshirt by winning a game of "Name That Tune" - something I've always placed very highly on my list of skills! For those of you who are a little concerned, I did actually make it outside the walls of Loki to see various markets, as well as the attractions surrounding the Plaza de Armas including the Cathedral - all of which I could actually see from my bedroom window, so really never needed to have left! I also had a little wander around the very quaint San Blas area which I accessed via the "massage gauntlet" that connects it to the plaza and is very much the place to be if your limbs are sore. On St George's day we headed out to eat at a gingo place called The Real McCoy where I thoroughly enjoyed a roast dinner.

As much as I was enjoying catching up with everyone and getting in a little more pool practice, that was not the main reason for my trip to Cusco, and neither was going out to various bars/nightclubs and dancing on their bars until all hours of the morning. Therefore, along with Mark and Goliath I booked onto a four day Inca Jungle Trek to Machu Picchu. This option appealed to me more than the classic "Inca Trail" for various reasons: I didn't have to book months in advance; it had some cycling and rafting involved rather than four days' solid walking; I could sleep in a bed rather than camp; and it was about half the price. After a bit of shopping around and checking that there were no Israelis in the group on the days we wanted to go, we settled on booking with Conde Travel.

The routine of late nights and therefore huge lie-ins had to stop as we were picked up at 08.00am which seemed very early, but was in fact the latest start to the day of the whole tour. Whilst waiting in reception for the bus to arrive, Mark and Goliath seemed quite surprised at the size of the bag I was taking with me for four days - it's simple really, if I know that I am going to have to carry it whilst walking a long distance it's amazing how lightly I can pack! When the bus arrived we met the other members of our group - Chris and Tom from England, and Jason from Australia. Surprise surprise we all booked through different agencies and ended up together with the same guide (Elmer).

After a couple of hours' drive we arrived in Málaga via the small town of Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. From Málaga we commenced our 70km downhill cycle via a stunningly scenice road which took us from an altitude of 4,350m to 1,500m all before lunchtime. The ride was fun, but if we hadn't been stuck behind Elmer who took corners incredibly slowly, it would've been a lot faster and therefore even better. By the end of it I was soaked from cycling through many cross-road streams originating from the waterfalls at the roadside.

For lunch we had the obligatory first course of soup you always get in Perú. This was no exception to the norm and required immense amounts of salt and pepper to introduce a bit of taste and flavour to it. The second course also ended up tasting more of salt and pepper than anything else, as did every meal we subsequently had on this trip! Once we were suitably full we were picked up and taken to the river by the rafting guide - Yuri, who we all originally thought was called Judy because of his accent. The river here was much faster than the one I went to in Tucuman in Argentina, and as there were more people to paddle and nobody had a fear of falling into the water, it was certainly more interesting. We rafted for around and hour and a half through grade III and IV rapids with various intervals to get in and swim in the freezing cold water of the Urubamba River.

The next morning we set off at 07.00am following a very welcome breakfast of banana pancakes - literally a banana wrapped up in a pancake, no salt and pepper required. This was the day where we were going to be walking through the jungle, however to get there we had a couple of hours' walk along the river. The damage by the recent floods and mudslides in the area was evident here and we could see just how far the waterline had risen at various parts of the river, although this was not an area that was affected too badly. For the second time in as many weeks I ended up with my face painted, only this time it was with juice from a fruit rather than the blood of a legless insect.

Once we arrived to the jungle I was very glad that I had opted for trousers rather than shorts as no amount of repellant seemed to stop the boys' legs from getting bitten to pieces. However, this did of course come at the cost of me overheating, not a smart move for someone who cannot seem to ever sweat! By the time we reached our first stop in the jungle - the Monkey Bar - I was not in the mood to appreciate the oversized rodent and the little monkey drinking from Gatorade bottles. I was more interested in holding my super-hot and super-swollen hands under the cold tap they had flowing at the back. As soon as my hands had returned to normal size it was time to set off again.

I continue to overheat as the day went on, dipping my hands and covering myself with the water from every stream that we passed. I even took cover in a patch of shade whilst the boys went off to play on a bit of rock that served as a great viewpoint. When we reached our stop for lunch I was straight to their cold tap to reduce my hulk hands once again. Normally whenever I get hold my extremities swell a little, but never like this - I started to get quite worried at one point when my hands were as big as Goliath's and I no longer had the dexterity to get my camera out of my bag, let alone take a photo! Once we were out of the jungle and back into the exposed blazing sunshine I began dreaming of cold streams and/or the ability to sweat like the rest of my group were managing so easily. Fortunately at just the right time we passed a random shop which had drinks in the fridge. I bought the coldest one I could find - a bottle of frozen Inca Kola - which defrosted between my hands in minutes, thus reducing the pain. From this point we could see our final destination for the day and we were all getting angry that we had walked a lot further than we had been told. There was still no sign of any bus coming to pick us up from the designated spot a few kilometers back, as the 6km we had left to walk after lunch turned into about 16km.

Checking into a hostel with no hot water could not have come at a better time for me as I cooled myself down, and for the first (and probably the last) time in my life I enjoyed washing my hair in freezing cold water. As we entered the town of Santa Teresa we passed a pizza restaurant, and asked Elmer if we would be eating there as we had all been craving pizza for some time. He said that we would be eating in another place, but at dinner time he took us there and served us with another soup/rice combination in dire need of some flavour. It was at this point we decided that he definitely did not understand anything that we said to him at all!

The next morning we had another breakfast of "banana rolled in pancake" before setting off on another day's walking. We had managd to communicate to Elmer that we wanted to climb up Putucusi, a very steep mountain near to Machu Picchu which has ladders in places to allow people to get up it. This meant setting off a little earlier than we would do otherwise, but that was no problem. One of our first obstacles was to cross over to the other side of the river so that we could get onto the path to the hydroelectricity plant that was along the way. To do this we had to take a rather primative cable car which consisted of a small open cage that was pulled along by hand. When we arrived at the hydroelectricity plant we had the standard meal of salt and pepper flavoured goodness before setting off along the rail tracks to get to Putucusi without really learning anything about the plant itself other than it powers pretty much all of Perú.

After we had been walking for about 30 minutes along one of the most unscenic routes I've walked for a long time, the heavens opened and we started to get soaked. The raincoats and ponchos came out to protect our bags and we continued the monotonous walk alongside the rail tracks, with the occasional train making things a little more interesting. Not only was the rain an inconvenience for our walk, we also quickly realised that this meant we would not be able to climb Putucusi afterall. After what seemed like an eternity we eventually reached the town of Aguas Calientes and changed into dry clothes before seeking out a place to buy some food to feed our appetites which had been left unsatisfied at lunch time. I think that all of us would be happy to never see a railway line again.

The day ended with a trip to the local hot springs which was very welcome after all the walking. They were pretty busy and not the nicest ones I've ever been to, but they did the job well enough. As soon as we were back in our dry clothes we had dinner - this time we got pizza, although it was not good at all! Afterwards we made a quick trip to the market to buy ingredients for the next day's packed lunch - the day we would finally reach Machu Picchu.

Of all the early mornings, this was the winner - a 04.00am departure meant getting out of bed at 03.55am; enough time to brush my teeth and throw on some clothes, waking up could wait until later. So, off we went along with the various other groups also aiming to arrive at the gates to Machu Picchu bright and early in order to secure one of the limited number of tickets available to enter and climb Wayna Picchu - the mountain in the background of all classic Machu Picchu photos.

In my sleepy state I had been unable to find my torch, but managed fine using the light from others' whilst we were on the road. However, we soon arrived at the steps up to the Machu Picchu entrance and I figured my own torch would be the way forward. As I dug around in my bag the rest of my group wandered ahead of me. This was the last I would see of them before reaching the top of the steps. I have no idea how many steps there are here, but it usually takes people an hour or so to climb them, so there are a lot. I also have no idea how many steps I had climbed before tripping over and knocking myself out, but I don't think I had made it half way. Something else that I do not know is how long it was before I opened my eyes and realised what had happened. However one thing that I do know about this little episode is that I came out of with with an incredibly sore left elbow - the same one I broke in my bicycle accident two years ago.

Eventually I made it to the top of the seemingly never-ending steps and found the boys all resting on a wall eating breakfast. They told me that they had not been there for too long and had just assumed I was moving slowly. Goliath bandaged my elbow up and fashioned a sling from his bandana, which under other circumstances I would have ridiculed him for owning! As I was eating breakfast and taking pain killers the man with the Wayna Picchu tickets made the journey worth it as he presented me with one.

As the sun was rising the gates to Machu Picchu opened and the tourists poured in. The weather was perfect and the historical site of Machu Picchu was not concealed by any clouds at all, nor was it covered with excessive numbers of tourists like I had expected leaving me pleasantly surprised. Our visit began with a quided tour around the highlights of the site before we wandered around independently. The tickets for Wayna Picchu were for 10.00am giving us plenty of time to go exploring and to eat everything that we had brought along for lunch before we even got to the entrance for our climb. By this time the sun was well and truly out and I had put on my sunglasses which have been getting progressively broken as the days go by. Jason even asked me whether I was wearing them when I took my stumble earlier on - if I had been wearing them an hour before sunrise then I think I deserved to have an accident!
When it was time to enter the gates to Wayna Picchu we let the rowdy group of Israelis (who had characteristically pushed in) go ahead so we could at least walk about as far away from them as possible. With my arm still in its "sling" I did not feel much like racing up, so I hung back and took it easy. Once again the ascent was filled with steps, some so small they could barely count as a step, and others so high that they came to my waist. All of them were muddy and wet from the previous night's rainfall and I did not want to take any chances.

At the summit there is little space for the few people who make it there. Much of the space was occupied by the same ridiculously noisy Israelis that we had seen at the bottom. They had managed to turn what should be one of the most tranquil places on earth into quite the opposite. Eventually they left and everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief. I know that I may be coming across as fairly anti-Israeli in this entry, but these guys really got under my skin; aside from the whole early morning accident this would have been a perfect day but for their presence.

Despite the disturbance to its peacefulness, the view from the top of Wayna Picchu was incredible. When I entered into the site of Machu Picchu I saw it from the same angle from which it is always photographed. By gaining much higher ground and viewing it from the other side I appreciated it in a completely different light. It looked so small and the shape of its borders was much clearer. After enjoying the newly arrived silence for a while I set off back down the mountain. Due to the wetness of the steps and my usual habit of falling over when going downhill I feared either a very lengthy descent or a horrific accident. As it turned out I am a stairmaster when it comes to going down and I had no problems at all.

Wandering around Machu Picchu was one of the experiences of this trip that I have enjoyed the most. There is so much to see there and each corner delivers something new to look and marvel at. Although it is one of the most expensive tourist attractions I've ever visited whilst backpacking, I would say it is definitely worth going to and I did not feel an ounce of disappointment the whole time I was there.

The boys had all decided that they wanted to walk up to the Sun Gate which is the entrance point for people doing the classic Inca Trail. I was more than happy to hang out near the Guard's House with the llamas and had no desier to go with them, or with Jason who fancied a walk up the actual Machu Picchu mountain. By the time they came back down it was time to walk back to Aguas Calients via the same steps we had scaled in the dark earlier that morning. However, with daylight on my side and the fact we were going down rather than up the journey was much quicker and I managed to avoid knocking myself out again!

Back in Aguas Calientes we had much needed showers and went for drinks and a couple of games of pool before dinner - some habits never change. Before we knew it the adventure was over and we were getting on a train back to Ollaytantambo to catch our bus back to Cusco.