Pacha mamma shrine in macchu picchu

Well, on day 4 of the trek (yesterday) we were woken at 3am, yes 3am. We packed up, had pancakes for breakfast and trudged in the dark to await the opening of the gate to the mountain of macchu picchu. it was a 2 hour hike to the sun gate, as the sun was rising and the anticipation was building. on day 3 we had our first look at macchu picchu and we were looking down on it and on day 4 we were looking up to macchu picchu and we had to climb, climb, climb again including the gringo killer steps, the angle was 80-85, and we had to climb using our hands and feet like scaling a mountain, whew. Walking through the sun gate, at last was the famous view of the inca city. We had another hour to walk to the actual ruins but along the way we gave our thanks at the pacha mama (mother nature) shrine and left an offering that we had carried from home. We tried to absorb some of the energy from the majestic stone.