Woke up at 3am and started my ascend to one of the greatest man-made constructions in the world, the famous Inca Ruins of Manchu Picchu.
If you are wondering why I was so crazy to do that, the Peruvian authorities only give out 400 daily passes to Wayna Picchu, the famous mountain backdrop of every image of Manchu Picchu.
Then came a road block, the security guards told me the entrance only open at 5am, a few other locals were already waiting to get in but were refused. I begged and told them it would take me double the time to climb up to Manchu Picchu, it would be impossible to get those entry passes to Wayna Picchu, I was refused again.
Somehow, seeing me looking a little pathetic and disappointed, one of the kind hearted guards took pity and told me to come over, we walked towards the barriers and he opened the gates, refusing the rest of the people waiting, I was allowed in on my own.
Walking up with a headlamp in the dark, instead of taking the 20 minute bus up (it starts at 5.30am). It was a huge physical feat for me, even though it was only 2400m in Altitude. It was a fantastic feeling being one of the first people up in Manchu Picchu, I was pretty proud of myself for that little tiny feat.
The trail up, look how steep the climb up of Manchu picchu was!
To climb up to the entrance of Manchu Picchu took 1 hour and a further 1 hour steep rocky climb to Wayna Picchu.
Sunrise at Manchu Picchu wasn’t terribly fantastic and the light quickly turned to a dull grey sky, at least it didn’t rain up in these Andean mountains!
There were 2 timings up to Wayna Picchu and I was recommended the 11am timing when the fog and cloud dissipated, but it gets really hot and I would sweat off all 1 liter of my water bottle. Reluctantly paid a whopping us$5 for a tiny bottle of water!
The view overlooking Manchu Picchu was amazing and photographs hardly express my feelings of this amazing Inca complex.
View of Manchu Picchu complex from Wayna Picchu
It is said that Manchu Picchu is a spiritual university for the Incas where selected scholars and priests who come study the various science of that time, astrology being one of them. Whatever it was, the whole place gave me a huge sense of how amazing and god smacking awesome to have built this great university complex right in the mountains.
I stayed until closing, meditated a little, giving thanks to the universe for allowing me to be in one of the greatest sites in the world. While most of the tourists have disappeared, the birds, viscachas (similar to chinchillas) and llamas begin appearing around me. Late afternoon is the best time to be there to catch those cute viscachas running around the manchu picchu ruins and watch those llama grazing, natural lawn mowers of the inca ruins.
I have the Travel Lust - photographing one place at a time 
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