Machu Picchu

The final day...we made it! :D
Our happy group, aren´t we cute?...if you can´t tell Maccu Picchu is behind us, emerging from the clouds and fog!

The famous sun dial rock, centered in the valley between 4 peaks.

Like crazy people we decided to hike to the top of the highest peak behind the Maccu Picchu complex...but it was well worth the last bit of exursion, as the views were awesome! M.P. only looks like a small dot to the right of Andrew in this photo...

Well we woke up on day 4 at 3:30 am... and what do we discover?! Someone has STOLEN my hiking shoes...I mean, c´mon...how ya gonna steal someones hiking shoes on a freaking hike? I was in disbeliefe for atleast the first 15 minutes of the whole episode, wondering how I was gonna manage walking the last day in stocking feet. Andrew tried his best to talk to our porters, one of which was supposed to be in duty watching over our tents...but no luck! I must have been at the top of my game that day because I really didn´t loose my cool... I knew that I was never going to see my shoes again and proceeded to simply figure out how I was gonna finish out the rest of the hike... thankfully another girl in our group had a second pair of shoes with her (comparable to keds) AND she was the same size as me...the incan gods were def looking down on me that morning...so I tied up my shoes and my anger and off we went...
It felt like the amazing race...everyone had gotten up at the same hour as our group (approx 250 people) and we were all hitting the trail, heading to the sun gates. People were shoving, passing and practically pushing people off the side of the cliff to get to the sun gates by sunrise. It actually really pissed me off, and totally ruined the whole essence of what the whole trek was supposed to be about...but I s´pose there are people out there who just need to be first!
It was quite funny though when we arrived to the sun gate, because it was completely socked in by fog and you couldn´t see anything! I had a quiet smile to myself, thinking of all the people who had shoved past me in the past hour. Anyways, we desceneded into the complex halfheartedly a bit at first, having missed our first great view... but we were rewareded shortly because as we arrived just above the complex, the clouds parted and revealed Maccu Picchu as if out of a dream. The sun broke through the clouds and illuminated the ruins for us all to see! It was like reaching mecca or something after the past 4 days... haha lol
We spent the next few hours walking around the complex with our crappy guide Henry (a whole other story lol)..then our group decided to high tail it up the mountain behind the complex to see better views. Once we reached the top, it made up for the fogged in sun gates, the view was exhilarating, amazing, awesome (insert any superlative you want :D)... we sat up there for a good half an hour soaking it all in. After the drama of the past 4 days, we were all high on what we were looking at!
After a grueling hike down that mountain, we realized none of us had the money to take the bus down to Aguas Calientes (the town at the bottom of the hill) so we had to hike down...over 1000 steps down, then a 20 min walk. As Andrew said, it was the "sucker punch" of the trip since all of us were practically cripples at this point, hobbling down the stairs like a bunch of invalids...sore calves, knees, thighs, and just about every other important muscle group I can think of... but we did arrive down in once piece, ate a HUGE meal at a local cafe and then boarded our train back to Cusco! We were drained, sweaty, smelly and dirty..but our spirits were as high as the heavens!