With the hardest trekking behind us we started our descent to a more comfortable altitude of 2,800m, discovering from Nancy that she suffers from low altitude sickness the closer she gets to Sea level, lasting only 30mins vs days for altitude sickness.
Although now only a few km from Machu Picchu it is shielded by mountains, protecting it for centuries from various invaders until a young local boy led an American Archaeologist called Bingham to the site earlier this century in 1911. Bingham removed many of the treasures from the site to Yale in the US to study on the basis they would be returned, 90 years later the row seems set to reach the courts. In a nutshell Yale are claiming they have maintained and preserved the treasures for 90 years as a scientific organisation, the Peruvian government are claiming they have been robbedhttp://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article342877.ece
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5298164
Now only 6km from Machu Picchu the "day trippers" who treked just the 9km to the campsite started to arrive much to the contempt of those who had been trekking for 3 days, with about 200 people now at the campsite it looked like the final sprint to Machu Picchu was going to be an interesting one.
Breakfast above the clouds before setting off for the final day of trekking
Shelley admiring one of the many fantastic views
Machu Picchu Mountain
Before getting a few hours sleep we said goodbye to the porters, with both sides singing each other songs, ours being "she´ll be coming round the mountain when she comes" modified slightly with verses "they´ll be wearing purple vests" and "carrying heavy backpacks when they come"
Our campsite
Each of the porters gave us a little bit of info about themselves, the most remarkable being Benito who was 62 and had 5 children, Benito like the others had carried his 25kg the 45km trek, what a tough guy. 
The porters
Highlights: Amazing views
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