I knew this was a kingdom in the clouds but I wasn't quite prepared for the altitude. Right from the time the plane landed at 13000 ft in Cuzco, I felt the impact of the altitude: dizziness and just a touch of a headache and of course, shortness of breath.

But the sights were amazing: the ancient city of Cuzco where street children posed for a dollar and guinea pig was a regular feature on the menu; the Sacred Valley that had been the bread basket of the Inca Empire and where the trails wound up and down the steep mountain side and finally the train ride to the base of the mountains that housed the lost city of the Incas. I was relieved that we had not signed up to do the four day hike to the top: we opted for the hair-raising bus ride up the switchback road to our hotel beside this Wonder of the World.

Eventually I got acclimatized and appreciated the easy accessibility that our hotel room gave us to the site. Early morning, before the tour busses arrived the best time to wander and capture this location in the sky.

At 2,430 m above sea-level, in the middle of a tropical mountain forest, Machu Picchu is one of the most extraordinarily beautiful and evocative settings I have been to. It is a reminder of the Inca Empire at its height; its giant walls, interlocking rockwork, not to mention the terraces and ramps that seem as if they have been cut right out of the mountainside. I can see why this is one of the Seven Wonders of the World: a brilliant natural setting on the eastern slopes of the Andes, and its man made kingdom together at the top of the world. Breathtaking.