Today is the day we see Machu Picchu!! We were so excited after all the ups and downs (literally) we will see MP today!! So waking up at 3:00 in the morning was not that hard considering we hardly got any sleep! All 200 plus trekkers that started on 23rd June were at this last campsite.There were too many people considering past 2 nights we have been avoiding crowds by being ahead of the crowd. Even though I have been complaining about having to go farther then most other groups its been great to have the whole campsite to us. Today the main gate opens at 5:00 and our first stop was to reach Sun gate by 6:00 and Machu Picchu by 7:30....
We waited in line for an hour and then as soon as the gate opened we turned on our lights and headed to the sun gate...We were so close to our destination that we had a new found energy to run;) plus it felt like a race so we had no choice but to run!
We reached the sun gate and were probably the first 20-30 people to reach sun gate. The fist glimpse of MP was amazing!! It's what we have been walking towards for 4 days afterall...we couldnt believe we did it!!!! We clicked few pics and then the cloud covered MP so we decided to continue towards MP to watch the sunrise. MP is truly amazing... The beauty is breath taking... Imagining this was built about 400-500 yrs ago at such a inaccessible location surrounded by beautiful Andes mountain range with such details in the construction is mind blowing!!
We explored the city for about 4-5 hours and then headed back on bus to meet our group for one last time for lunch. We were all stinking from no shower for 4 days and was the first time in 4 days we were with non hikers... probably people sitting around us could smell that too..We could see it on their faces;) I was so looking forward to going back to the hotel taking a hot shower and sleeping in a normal bed!!
Lunch was super fun, everyone was so excited to complete the hike!! It was like we were seeing different sides of everyone... We finally ordered the famous Pisco Sour to celebrate our hike!! (a real happy hour for once instead of popcorn and cocoa tea) We shared our emails and headed off to 4 hour ride back to Cusco.
We reached our hotel at about 10:00pm and no points for guessing the first thing I did was took a hot shower!! Our flight was at 7:00am next day so we were to leave for airport by 5:00am... If I had known we will not be back by 10:00pm I would have planned better!!
So 3 highlights of the trek:
1) Crossing dead woman's pass
2) Making new friends
3) Rushing towards sungate at 3:00 in the morning
Lowlights of the trek
1) Restrooms/toilets
2) Sleeping in sleeping bag
3) No shower
This truly was an experience where the journey was more important than the destination!!
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