Today we had a 3:15 am wake up call!!
We all got ready and by 4am we were already sitting down by the gate waiting for it to open at 5:30am.
Apparently we wake up early because the porters need to catch a train in Aguas Calientes at 5:30am and if they don't make it it costs them a lot of money.
We waited in the freezing cold among many other groups.
At 5:30 sharp they opened the gate and we started speed walking to reach the sun gate before the sun rises.
We arrived to the sun gate at around 7am and to our surprise it was all clear and beautiful!
Jeiko had mentioned how unusual it is to get a clear day but we were hoping for the best. If it was foggy we would keep hiking down until we reached Machu Picchu.
I felt so lucky to have such a good weather in the trail (not even a drop of rain) and having a clear sky at the sun gate was the cherry on top!
Machu Picchu doesn't have a beautiful sunrise but as the sun rises off the mountains it behinds to illuminate Machu Picchu.
Most of the group decided to walk down and not see the sun hit Machu Picchu from the sun gate but I stayed and it was rather beautiful!
Here is Machu Picchu at different stages
I took so many pictures! I was so excited to finally see Machu Picchu!
On our hike down we found Ricardo, our tour guide, with a very clever drawing of all of us hiking Machu Picchu! Haha
We rested for a little (and finally used bathrooms and saw ourselves in the mirror) and then we started a tour of Machu Picchu with Jeiko and Elias.
I can't really remember all the info that Jeiko shared with us but he did do a fabulous job explaining everything Machu Picchu related!
Here I am so happy!!!! Finally... Machu Picchu!!!
And my passport has been stamped!
Jeiko talking about Machu Picchu
Careful... Llama crossing!
Group shot before saying goodbye to Elias and Jeiko
Our 3 tour guides
After the tour we had a couple of hours before meeting for lunch but Mia, Sita, and I were so tired that we decided to go down to Aguascalientes and relax before our train back to Ollantaytambo.
We all gathered for lunch and said thank you to Jeiko and Elias
Once in the train, it felt surreal that only yesterday we were up there high in the mountain hiking and now we are sitting on a train back to cusco :-(
At night, Sam, Bianca and I went for a well deserved dinner at Cicciolina... Yumm
White chocolate mousse on top of brownie with butterscotch sauce and little mint gelatin!
Mil hojas with mango and manjar and some basil ice cram... DELISH!
And to burn the calories we went for some salsa dancing... And a couple of drinks!
Sita and I having a Machu Picchu!!!
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