When there are 500 people all trying to get to the same place first you need to get up very very early. We got our wake up call at 3:00am and breakfast was at 3:30am. We lined up to take our final hike to the Sun Gate and Machu Picchu.
As we were preparing to leave we could see the stars in the sky. They were so bright and seemed so close you could almost touch them. We knew it was going to be a beautiful day.
Our group (minus us) raced to the sun gate which should have taken about an hour and a half to two hours. They arrived in just under an hour! We joined them and the view was amazing.
We headed down from the sun gate to Machu Picchu…we arrived!
We spent the remainder of the morning exploring Machu Picchu. Unfortunately the photos don’t do it justice. It was massive and beautiful.
We had our final group meal together in a small village called Aquas Calientes. It was time to celebrate our success!
The group split up and 8 of us were headed back to Cusco. We took a train to Ollantaytambo and it was the strangest train ride we’ve ever been on. About 30 minutes into the ride this strange creature came out and entertained the group. Then the fashion show started. It was a very odd combination but a lot of fun.
We arrived back in Cusco around 9:00pm and very anxious to take very long hot showers, put on clean clothes and sleep in a nice soft bed with sheets!