It seems that no trip to South America is compete without a visit to the "lost" Inca city of Machu Picchu, so I found myself heading towards the tourist trap of Cusco and the towns of Ollantaytambo and Aguas Calientas. (Yes, I cheated and took the train to Aguas Calientas, before taking the bus up to the ruins - no Inca trek for me due to a lack of time. Maybe on my next trip to S America?)
Keen to avoid the crowds of other tourists, I spent the night in Aguas Calientas, getting up before dawn to catch the bus to the ruins in time for the gates to open, allowing me to get in and wander around before too many others were doing the same. Even at 6am, as the gates opened there were perhaps 150-200 people waiting outside, fortunately the site is large and after getting the classic postcard photo from the top I was able to wander around the ruins for a few hours without bumping into too many other people. By 10am though, more trains from Cusco had arrived bringing with them hoardes of tourists, and the site became horribly full of large groups all listening to different stories from their guides, so I beat a hasty retreat back to the town.
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