Hiking the Inca Trail. To the mystical lost city of Machu Picchu. If you’re fortunate, this is one of those once in a lifetime pilgrimages. Definitely the most famous hike in all of South America. Four days of backpacking, covering over 40 kilometers with a 4198 meter (14000 foot!) pass to climb! Its like you’re right there with Johnny Quest!
But before we get started, lets clear up a few misconceptions. First of all, there are Inca trails all over Peru and Bolivia. A thousand years ago, long before the Spanish came upon the Inca culture, the Inca were building roads of carefully laid stone to connect their massive empire. This empire covered parts of modern Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia and Chile! These trails exist today, intertwining through South America. And holding up to the climate far better than the modern roads of our western culture! This portion of the Inca trails is definitely the most famous though!
Second, Machu Picchu is not the lost city of the Incas. When it was rediscovered in 1911 by American historian Hiram Bingham, the local Indians didn’t know it was ever ‘lost’. And in fact, as the Spanish Conquistadores advanced on the land of Incas 500 years ago, the people of Machu Picchi appear to have deserted the city and fled northward, into the jungle. To a city that today remains ‘lost’, deep in the jungle. At least ‘lost’ to our modern western culture!
Day one, early on the little bus to ride to the trail head. A quick stop in the town of Ollantaytambo for supplies and to pick up our cook. A few hikers buy bags of coca leaves and little bicarbonate stones. They’ll chew these along the way, creating a little chemical reactor in their mouth. The chemical created is similar to cocaine. Coca leaves are chewed by many locals as well as some of our hikers to ease the pain of altitude sickness and fatigue on the grueling trek. Me, I accidentally left my long sleeve shirt at the laundry, so I’m busy buying a long sleeved T-shirt. They only have one type in the little market. Its a Baywatch T-shirt! Of all of the wonderful things of US culture, why is it that TV shows like Baywatch are what we export to the rest of the world? And then the rest of the world thinks that we all look like and act like the Baywatch babes and dudes. Why? Oh, well!
Back in the bus and up the deep and narrow canyon of the Rio Urubamba. Its a rough ride. And its corn harvest season. So we must share the narrow dirt road with the massive harvest trucks, once even having to build a section of road so that our bus can drive around the harvesters. The swirling, cold waters of the river were oh so close. A few people got out of the bus and walked. It definitely felt a little more secure!
Then, at the trail head, toss the backpack on, cross the river on the swinging, wooden suspension bridge and head up!
We pass through semi-desert terrain as we begin our climb at a mere 2380 meters. In the mid afternoon, we view our first ruin, Wayna Quenta. It is far below us, in the river valley. We note immediately how the city’s structure is in perfect alignment with the earth. It is explained to us by our guide, an Inca Indian, that the Incas almost always built in harmony with Pacha Mama (Mother Earth). He went on to explain how there really was only one Inca at any given time. Although we use the word Inca to label the entire tribe, the actual Inca was the king of the tribe. The Inca (king) and his family were at the apex of their culture. It was a culture that was highly stratified according to social class. Right below the Inca and his family was the professional class, merchants and such.
Immediately below them, were the propagandists. These people went out to other cultures, other Indian tribes, telling them of the culture of the Inca king’s people and recruiting new people for the Inca. And these new people were welcomed graciously. Their idols and symbols of their gods are often found in Inca temples during excavation. And to this day, the flag of the Inca Empire is a seven striped rainbow flag, said to represent the manner in which all people were welcomed into the Inca family.
Immediately below these propagandists were the farmers and their incredible system of terrace farming in these steep mountains. Below them, the slaves. But the role of a slave in this culture was not a role of subjugation. Instead, slaves did domestic work, not hard physical labor.
Now of course, all of this information is coming from our guide, a modern day person of Incan heritage. And he is very proud of that heritage. So perhaps some of these facts are colored with his pride!
We continue up the trail and set up camp at 3000 meters just as the mist and rain begins to roll in. It makes for a wonderful night, sleeping in the tent with the gentle rain cleansing the world. And we really need a good nights sleep! Because the next morning finds us trudging up and over Warmiwanusca (Dead Woman) Pass at 4198 meters. For me its about two and a half hours of up. 1200 meters of up. After you pass through the forest and break out above tree line, you keep thinking that you must be close to the top. Then you turn another corner and see that its still a long ways off! Luckily it is a misty, drizzly day. Keeping the temperature down for the climb. But I still sweat so much that I figure I’m about as wet inside my poncho as I would be outside my poncho. (There’s a word to be careful of! In South American Spanish, while poncho is a raincoat, pancho is a hot dog! You want to be careful not to put on your hot dog if it rains! Or to order a raincoat to eat at a restaurant!)
At the top of the pass, the view is incredible and the feeling of accomplishment even more incredible. This truly is turning into a pilgrimage of sorts, with the physical challenge of the hike and the knowledge we are gaining along the way of this incredible, ancient culture.
The people of the Inca king appear to have held three as a very sacred number. They believe in three levels of life. First the subterranean, symbolized by the snake. Then, our earthly life, symbolized by the puma. Then the realm of the heavens, symbolized by the condor. And passage from one realm to another was very important. Upon death in this earthly life, the body was carried to a high mountain peak and placed in fetal position so the condor could carry it to the sky to be born into the next life.
After another peaceful night’s sleep, we head into the third day. This is our longest hike, but it doesn’t have too much up and down. We pass several ruins along the trail, including Sayacmarca, and have the chance to explore. Up close. It is high on a mountain peak with incredible views. And again, it was built to the contour of the mountain. There is a wonderful and elaborate maze of rooms, using existing rocks for walls where possible. And beautiful terraces from which to enjoy the views. The sun shows itself briefly during our visit here, giving a very different view of the world, burning the eire mist away.
As we inspect the construction techniques of the Inca people, it is incredible to realize how advanced they were. For instance, they knew how to build to have their buildings survive through earth quakes!
This is an earthquake prone area. Much like the Cascade mountain range of the Pacific Northwest part of the US. The Andes mountains are being formed as the tectonic plate of earth under the Pacific Ocean runs into the tectonic plate of earth we call South America. The Pacific Ocean tectonic plate is forced down under the tectonic plate of South America. As it is forced down, there are frequent earthquakes when one plate suddenly slips against the other. Just like the recent earthquake near Seattle! Also, as the plate is forced down, the incredible pressure friction force it is under makes it get hotter and hotter until the earth actually melts. Then this melted earth, molten lava, erupts to the surface as a volcano. Like the eruption of the Mountain St. Helens volcano near Seattle 20 years ago!
Well, the Inca people built all of their incredible stone buildings on beds of gravel. This way, during an earthquake, the building floated on the gravel instead of shaking with the earth. They also built all of their walls so they were slightly slanted inward. This way, the walls helped support each other, they leaned on each other! And finally, they used extremely hard dolomite stones to shape and carve all of the stone for their walls. The fit was so perfect, no mortar was ever needed!
After the long third day of hiking, again we sleep well in a gentle rain. At least everyone else sleeps well in the gentle rain. Me, I got some bad food or water along the way and have started to need very regular runs to the bathroom. Not fun! And it will end up going on for about 7 days before I get back to normal. And in that seven days, I figure I lost about 15 pounds. So if you’re looking to lose weight, I’ve got the way for you! I don’t think its ‘vale la pena’ (worth the pain) though!
The next morning, we wake up very early (4:30) and hike to Intipunku, the Sun Gate, to watch the sun rise over Machu Picchu. Only the mist is continuing and we never get a real clear view of the city spread out below us. Then we will hike down into Machu Picchu, at a mere 2400 meters, and explore.
It is incredible. Huge. Built on the contours of Pacha Mama. With an astronomical observatory. With temples. Houses. Contours for farming. And that famous peak, Huayna Picchu, looking over the spreading city. And all standing so strong so many hundreds of years later. After the organized tour, I sit alone, absorbing the feeling. Reflecting on these incredible people and what they have created. And how they fell.
For here, we learn of their system of gods. Pacha Mama, the mother earth. And Inti, the sun god. And the Picchu (mountains), which were viewed as the ancestor god. And most intriguing of all, their creator god. He was said to wear shining metal clothes. And to have hair on his face. And the legend, so many hundreds of years ago, was that he would come to visit his people.
And so it was that when the Spanish Conquistadores came to the land of the Inca people, they were welcomed royally. They were trusted and led to see the incredible wealth of the Inca people. For these Conquistadores were assumed to be the creators, come to visit the Inca people. It took four years before the Inca people, seeing the greed of the Spanish Conquistadores, finally realized that this was not the creator come for a visit. But by then it was to late to fight, too late to save their culture. And so this magnificent culture fell. A victim of its own creator god. A victim of its own hospitality!