We arrived in Aguas Caliente late last night and after finding our hostel decided to try and hike up Huayna Picchu this morning. Huayna Picchu is the iconic mountain that serves as a backdrop to the ruins of Machu Picchu. Today the park limits the number of passes to the mountain to only 400 a day (200 per group, 1 early/1 late). It being a weekend we knew we had to be one of the first at M.P. to be ensured of a pass. After waking up a little before 4am we soon got in line for one of the buses that would take us to M.P. As we arrived at the bus line there were already hundreds of people lined up in front of us. Eventually we got on a bus and we were finally on our way to Machu Picchu, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World.

As we arrived at the entry gate to the park we got our passes to Huayna Picchu for 7:00AM. Seeing that we still had a little bit of time before 7:00am rolled around we began to explore some of the ruins just as the sun was rising over the mountains. After watching documentaries and seeing countless images of Machu Picchu I had to pinch myself that I was actually standing there.