Salkantey Trek - Day 5 Machu Picchu

We made it! Up at 345 am to check out of our hostel and start the hike to Machu Picchu by 420. The gates fir the hike open at 5 but the lines builds up fast. Once through its an hour long hike up a couple thousand feet of incan stairs to Machu Picchu. For the first time in our trek it was pouring rain while hiked. WIth the rain and sweat combined, we were freezing when we made it to the top and during our 2 hour tour with Roy. However the sun finally broke out after the tour and a sad farewell to our great guide. We all thawed out and had some snacks before saying goodbyes amongst each other. Everyone but Kelly and I were going to hike Waynapicchu (that peak behind Machu Picchu) so we figured we would not see them as we were also catching an earlier train. Turned out they caught up to us on the hike back later that day since rain drove most people to leave early. But that was around 2pm. All in all we spent about 8 hours up there wandering the massive ruins and doing a couple nearby hikes to incan sites like the sun gate. Great views. Don't know what to say about machu picchu. It's incredible. Would have been cool to live there in its heyday. And no clue how they built it along sheer cliffs. Its overwhelmingly awesome. We saw it with every face of weather too so that was also neat. This place is just incredible.

Once back in Aguas Caliente we killed time in a redtaraunt and the market before catching a train and bus to get back to Cusco at 11pm. Another long day but well worth all the patience and effort :)

(Any pics where you see the river, that's where we hiked the day before)