I had toast (which didn’t want to emerge from the toaster) and pancakes this morning without any ill effects then checked out, leaving my big bag there. Elvira was already there waiting for me. We then boarded the Peru Rail train for Machu Picchu Pueblo, rather like boarding an airplane as they checked passports and tickets. Elvira managed to get us onto the best side of the train bless her for the slow ride punctuated with train whistles (for cows and men working on the line) to where the Amazon forest begins. The scenery outside the train slowly changed from rocky hillsides to rainforest glades. The train winds besides the river, we could see the porters carrying their loads along the Inca Trail which sometimes follows the river sometimes crosses mountains.

After an hour and a half we arrived at Agua Calientes and I was impressed by the clean state of the toilets there. The town has grown up due to the tourist trade and has a large market area selling souvenirs (of perhaps dubious authenticity). Elvira introduced me to Paddington who was sitting around on a bench by the river which flows through the place. My bag got collected by Hotel staff at the station, very efficient. We then waited to board a bus up to Machu Picchu along with hundreds of others. The bus zigzags up a dirt road with vertiginous drops, having to squeeze past buses going the other way. We arrived and joined the queue for Circuit 2 waiting for 11am to arrive.

Circuit 2 first approaches Machu Picchu from the left, offering picture postcard views. It is an amazing sight, and as you see the sides of Machu Picchu and appreciate the amount of work that went into making it it is even more amazing. To start with you are jostling with other tourists including tour parties but it thins out after a while. You eventually cross into the centre, seeing how the building quality reflects the occupants and the usage. The houses of the holy and the temples have the best stonework. Somethings can’t be seen anymore, the temple with the sundial is suffering subsidence, the stele in the middle got damaged when the government then let the Spanish royals land in a helicopter for their convenience. Machu Picchu anywhere would be astounding, but set among the Andean mountains it is miraculous. Happily for us the Spanish invaders never found it to destroy it.

The buses were less crowded coming down. Elvira showed me my marvellous hotel set seemingly in the rainforest itself. I had a silly crepe in a place in town but it was nutrition of a sort.

I indulged in a foot massage at the spa at the hotel, as much for the experience as for kneading some health into my tired feet. I paid for this indulgence immediately afterwards by stumbling on the way back to my room 22. I suffered bad grazes and bruising. The reception staff kindly patched me a little but not good at all.