Day 33: Isla del Sol and Copacabana

We took another trip to Lake Titicaca, except this time we went to the Bolivian side and Isla del Sol

Day 32: Goodbye Cusco

Maaaaangoooos

Last view of Cusco

Our best llama impressions

Day 31: Machu Picchu

We woke up at around 4.15 in the morning to the lovely sound of torrential rain, all three of us wore some delightful plastic ponchos and began the trek across Aguas Calientes up to the first bridge where they check your passport and ticket. We had decided to wake up early and try and get to Machu Picchu in time to see the sunrise. It took us around 40  minutes and of course we had forgotten a torch, so we walked in the pitch black. By the time we got to the foot of the stairs up to Machu Picchu it was already beginning to get lighter. Already several other groups of people were beginning to also make their way up the gigantic staircase. To say it was handwork would be a serious understatement, climbing stairs at 3,000m in the pouring rain was no easy task. However, about 50minutes later we all made it to the top (poor Clem slightly straggling behind). We then showed our passports again and walked up the little path which took us to the top of Machu. To our disappointment the clouds had stayed firmly where they were, although the rain had slightly stopped a little- so no sunrise for us. It was no big matter though, and as our tour began around an hour later than we had arrived we decided to make our way up to the Sun Gate. It was around another 40 minute hike up the side of a mountain and again there were even more clouds up there. Our guide was really good (I have completely forgotten his name) and gave us around a 2 hour tour around and explained how there was a university for the elite boys and all the different sections of the ruins, agricultural etc. At around 12 ish the sun finally came out and we were able to get a view of the whole of Machu Picchu. We found even more llamas, took hundreds of photos and then began our way down which we found out was blocked by a recent landslide (we were told these were fairly common during the rainy season). Once we reached Aguas Calientes we treated ourselves to the best 3 course meal I think I have ever had, with more vegetables than I have had in the whole 5 weeks I have been here. In total the meal came to an extremely expensive £12.

Our first view of a very cloudy Machu Picchu

Jack and our tour guide

Even more llamas!!

The agricultural section of Machu

Our extremely attractive rain gear

Huayna Picchu mountain

The university

All of us with our tour guide

The sun finally made an appearance

Our best llama impressions

Last view of Machu Picchu

Landslide on way down

VEGETABLES!!!

A well deserved choccie mousse

Day 30: Machu Picchu day 1

The day began at around 6am when both Clem and I woke up to the dreaded thought of having to pack. Having bought excess amounts of alpaca goods yesterday it was near impossible to fit everything in. About an hour and half later of sitting on bags and almost breaking the zips we had finally shoved everything in. Last night we had met up with Clem's friend, Jack, and he was going to be coming with us for the Machu trip and the next 2 weeks or so. All of us grabbed some eggs on toast for breakfast, which for Clemmie was to re-appear only a few minutes later. Once we had finally left the hostel we began our journey to Ollyantaytambo, where we would then catch a train to Aguas Calientes. However, it did not go as smoothly as we thought; about half way in Clemmie again began complaining of feeling extremely sick and then proceeded to ask the , poor taxi driver to pull over. However, instead of stopping in a secluded spot, he pulled over right next a woman and her daughter who were walking their sheep and pigs, who I think were a little startled with Clemmie throwing up the rest of her breakfast a few metres in front of them. Once we were back on the road we soon came into the little town and had a look around. The train journey lasted about 2 hours and we finally came into the town of Aguas Calientes at around 3 and met our guide who took us to the hostel for an early night, as we have an extremely early wake up tomorrow morning in order to hike up Machu Picchu.

next to impossible packing our bags

good start to the day

Loki Hostel

Clem not feeling her best

markets in Ollyantaytambo

spot the tourists

Clem recovered very quickly and then scoffed some mint choc chip and lemon ice cream-the ice cream man couldn´t understand her combination though

the train

Aguas Calientes