Today I was up before the crack of dawn. I was awake a good hour before I heard the rooster crowing... It was still pitch black. And it was still outing down with rain. It had rained all night, since about 2pm yesterday. I hoped it would stop raining by the time I left the hotel, but it didn't. Sleepily I walked towards the bus stop, almost walking past it! It was only because I wondered why so many people were queueing out in the rain that I didn't walk past. At 5:00am the queue was already quite large. The first bus didn't leave until 5:30am but now I understood why the guide told me to be there in plenty of time. After a good 30 minutes of standing in the rain, which by this point had slowed to a drizzle, the queue was finally moving and not long after I was on the bus. Still pitch black. The bus wound up what I thought was a road. On the way back down I learnt it was actually just a dirt track up the side of the mountain! When we stopped it was light. Not sure when exactly the sun had risen as I had fallen asleep in the bus. It was still drizzling though and was still very misty. I had no idea what I was surrounded by. I had no clue where Machu Picchu was hiding. My guide Juan Carlos was waiting for me at the entrance. In 2 hours he told me everything I need to know about the ancient Inca city and more. Did you know that Machu Picchu is actually laid out in the form of a condor? Neither did I this morning... Before the city was abandoned about 500-600 people were living here. The 4,000-6,000 visitors everyday are causing the city to sink at a rate of 1cm per year. JC expects that in the coming years they will restrict the number of visitors as they already do to the 2 mountains within Machu Picchu. Those allow only 400 visitors per day and are currently fully booked for the next 3 months! I did not get to see the city in its full glory. The clouds never completely lifted, although that did make for some pretty stunning photos (if I do say so myself!).

In 2007 Machu Picchu was voted one of the 7 New Wonders of the World and it is pretty wonderful...