We Arrived in Aguas Calientes in the afternoon and the first thing that meets you is a huge market that surrounds the station, I suppose to "capture" all the tourists, we found a nice hostel and deposited our bags, then had a look around, Augas Calientes is a very very small town, if not a village. it would take about 5 mins to walk from one side to the other, but still a very lovely place to stay, even though its VERY touristy, is got lots of restaurants, bars and gift shops. after we deposited our bag we headed for the "bus station" (just a bus stop when we got there) to find out the buses up to the entrance to Machu Picchu (I wanted to do the INCA trail but Ryan did not have the funds) we found out that the best but to get was the 5am bus, that way you get there before all the "normal" tourists and the groups doing the INCA trail, that way you also get the best photos as there would be few people in the shots. The next morning we got up a 4am to get ready for Machu Picchu, we got to the entrance at 5:45 and there was clouds everywhere and we were both praying that they would clear in time for us too get some pictures before all the other tourists arrived. once we got through the gate our guide lead us to the "Plateau" which on all sides was surrounded by clouds, so it looked like luck was not on our side as we could no see a thing. but then our guide told us to keep looking, and with all the mystery that you would expect from a place like that it started to appear out of the mist , it was absolutely amazing and captivating, all of the chatting tourists that were around all suddenly went quiet and EVERYBODY was just staring and in amazement of the wonder revealing itself in front of us. first you could just make out 6 / 7 roof tops then a few more, the odd whole building until one whole level was clear then another, until you could see the whole thing, lit but the morning sun when followed our guide who showed us all the important temples like the Sun and Moon temples the temple of the Condor, then he explained that all the different layers were going down the cliff side were the irrigation and farming areas and one of the most amazing things were the water systems that carry all the drinking water around the site using only gravity to transport it, the guide explained that that are thought to be supplied by natural springs, then he also explained that when Machu Picchu was first discovered it was hidden by the rainforest and covered with vines, but the water system was still running, and that they had concluded that it has been running since the INCAS lived there !. when you stand on the plateau you can see all the "districts" of the site, the living, schooling and religious areas all surrounding a large lawned area in the centre, as you walk around you can see the skill that went in the the building of this place, as you walk in to any of the buildings al the windows are precisely sized so that everyone is exactly the same, also in the religious buildings the windows have been placed EXACTLY in line with the timing of the Equinox, the Northern Cross and other astrological and seasonal sky's, so that at that particular time of year the sun, moon or certain star constellation would shine directly on the alter of the relating building, they even managed to place a rock that was carved with the compass on but it was placed EXACTLY in line, when you place a compass on to the rock each of the N, S, E and W point in precisely the right directions, there not off not even by 1mm. Also as you wonder around from building to building you notice the brick used to build them, not only are they large but they have been smoothed down so that they fit together so tight that you cannot even push a hair in-between the the gap (that isn't there), once we had finished the tour we headed straight for wiyna picchu (the famous large mountain you see in the background of all the pictures of Machu Picchu) as we were advised by our guide to get there as soon as the tour finished if we wanted to climb it as they only let 400 people a day climb, our guide had told us that it takes 20mins Inca speed to get to the top, and 1 hour 20min for the average human, all that did was make myself and Ryan try to climb in Inca speed well as we started to climb it started to rain, and this posed a problem for our climb attempt as most of the path is only 1 1/2 to 2 foot wide and in a lot of places at a 45 degree angle (there does not seem to be ANY safety laws in South America) but we still attempted the 20 min Inca speed and managed to get to the top in 29 mins, as we were on the way up it started to rain, this caused a problem coz I didn't have my jacket with me and all I had on was my linen shirt so I had to put my camera under my shirt to try to keep it dry, not that under a linen shirt was going to keep it very dry, lol. With the rain the climb was much more difficult as the higher you get the closer to the buildings you get and the smaller the path gets and in some sections there were rock “steps” placed in to the steep climb but each step was on average only about 15cm by 30cm so there was not much to stand on an as they were getting wetter in the rain they became very slippy. Once you got to the top there was a temple and a few other building ruins to explore, also there was the most amazing view of Machu Picchu and from such a hight you could see every single part and see the full layout of the complex. We had to make our way down a lot slower that our climb as the rain had turned most of the paths in to mud paths, and most of the paths being so thin were very difficult to navigate, by the time we got to the bottom the rain had stopped and the sun had come out so we took this opportunity to take more pictures. And as were were not with the guide any more we also had the chance to explore the complex on our own. We were lucky coz the time of year that we visited was very low season so even in the middle of the day there were not really many tourists around, so any pictures you took were generally free of other people and as you wondered around most of the time you were alone, so as you were wondering around it was really quiet and you would be standing in a building or in an alleyway and you could not help trying to imagine what it must have been like when this place was at its peak busy with Incas doing there daily routine. It was a very mystical place. After more exploring and trying to get the “classic” photo we headed back to our bus to take us back to Aguas Calientes, once we got back we decided to head straight for the thermal spa to relax and chill out after such an amazing day.