Machu Picchu

The classic Inca city, built on top of a mountain, swallowed by the jungle, lost for centuries, rediscovered and slowly being rebuilt. We stayed in Aguas Calientes which meant we could be on site at the crack of dawn. We were up on the mountain at 8am.

Just as an aside, water is provided by a spring which runs along channelled stones before going through a bundle of fountains and temples and spilling off the mountain. There is a modern resort on top of the mountain which gets its water from the same spring. They had lost their water supply because of a landslide several days earlier. The four hundred year old Inca supply was still working fine.

And the entire place was enveloped in cloud. Visibility was literally a couple of feet, you could not see a thing. I loved it. There was something more magical about having the place emerge from the cloud was amazing. Small glimpses here and there, then over the course of the morning the cloud cleared, slowly allowing it all to be seen.

Another advantage of getting there early is no one else was there. Our guide kept telling us how he had never seen the place so empty. In the first half hour we only saw two other people, they had been there since 6am and we only saw them for a few minutes when they appeared from the mist before disappearing again.

There is the main ruins which everyone sees, then there are the places off the beaten track. The two peaks it sits between, but you have to register to climb those, plus they cost money now and the day we were there, you would not have been seeing much. However, the Inca Bridge was a great walk, not recommended if you're afraid of heights.

Allow lots of time for a visit and don't be afraid to explore. I loved the way it just clings to the cliffs and even with the place crawling with tourists, it's not hard to find somewhere with no one else in sight, which I can recommend.