Machu Picchu is one of the main reasons we came to Peru and now it was finally time to go see it. We had spent the whole day before exploring the Sacred Valley so we were pretty tired but we still had the strength to wake up at 4:30 to take a short bus ride. It took about 20 minutes to drive and on the way we saw beautiful mountains that reminded me a lot of the Napali Coast in Kauai.

We were among the first buses to arrive at the entrance so not that many people were there. It had been our goal to see the sunrise so when we got through we basically ran into any direction. We didn't know what was were but my mom took a path that led us upwards. Walking fast up stairs in that high altitude was very hard so when we got to a landing point we had to just stop and focus on breathing. When we looked up we saw that from were we stood we saw over the Machu Picchu ruins just as the sun was coming up over the nearby mountains. The view was so stunning and somehow magical that it's almost impossible to describe.

We stood there for a moment and just watched the sun rise. More people had arrived and we saw some of them walking around in the old broken village. We were so glad that we were up here instead down there espesially because it would have been so easy for us to have taken a different path. We walked arround the upperlevels for a while before heading back down to the entarance to meet our guide. We were in a private tour which was great because then my grandfather had enough time and space to ask her all kinds of questions. As complicated as those questions could be we did learn a lot of cool things.

After the tour we had walked almost every squaremeter of the place and I was starting to feel that in my legs. We still decided to use the good weather and walk up to a place called the Sun Gate. It takes about forty minutes to walk up to it so we stopped a few times along the way to catch our breath. When we were at the top we really saw over everything. Machu Picchu, Wayna Picchu (the mountain that stands next to Machu Picchu) and we even saw part of Aguas Calientes. Now the sun had gone behind some clowds so it wasn't as magical as earlier but it was still very peaceful. We were very impulsive and did some yoga before walking back down.

There were lamas walking around everywhere and it was fun to be able to take pictures of them without having to pay for it.

We took the bus back at three o' clock which meant that we had been there for over eight hours. Just as we were walking away it started to rain and I felt so sorry for the people that hadn't gotten here earlier.

When we were back in Aguas Calientes and were eating in a restaurant rain started pouring from the sky just like it had the night before. We were so lucky with the weather and so happy with everything and I was so grateful for the opportunity that I had gotten that all I wanted to do was go to sleep.