10/20/14 Trek Day 4: The grand finale

We wake up at about 4:00am and head to the entrance at the base of Machu Picchu. We get up early so that we can try and catch the sunrise at the top, and at that time there are less people. It was actually really nice because it was so cool and the air was crisp. The hike starts and everyone kind of separates to go at their own pace. I don't know if I got on a sort of runners high or was just super excited to get to the top but I cruised up there and was there in about 45 minutes which is good time. I was really proud of myself because the hike is steep and mostly steps. Again, the pictures don't do anything justice. It was a bit cloudy so we didn't get to actually see the sunrise but I was still awesome. The place is huge and completely gorgeous, even more so with minimal people. About 2,000 people on average go see it every day, so capturing some pics with minimal people is awesome. We have about a two hour guided tour through the ruins and get a lot of history and education. After we were free to explore, it started getting really busy, so we ate lunch and hiked up another 45 minutes to the Sun gate to see an over view of the grounds. It was obviously beautiful. After some rest and contemplation there we started making our way down, which was actually harder than the way up because my knees started giving out and hurting. We made it back to Aguas just in time for a pretty strong storm. We hung out and rested for a while and after the rain slowed we walked about 15 minutes to the Aguas hot springs which are definitely not as cool as the other one but we had time to use. We took the train (my first train ride) for about two hours back toward Cusco. A very strange experience, the staff did a little fashion show for clothes to purchase and there were creature-like costumes they dressed up in for entertainment. We then got off the train and took a bus into Cusco. We got into cusco about 11 and I ate and totally crashed. I had to be up for work at 8 at the clinic which did not sound at all appealing at the time but I survived. After work, my head hit the pillow and I was out of commission for the rest of the day. GOOD NIGHTTT!!!!