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Inca
odyssey Ancient civilisations have always fascinated me. At school I was captivated by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans who, while we in the UK were still running around with woad on our faces and living in caves, were reaching heights of technology we would not see again until the 19th century. But across the Atlantic there were other civilisations – people we never seemed to learn about in school. The best known of these civilisations was the Incas – a people who, at their peak, ruled over most of the lands between southern Colombia and Central Chile, including the Andean regions of Bolivia and northern Argentina. The heartland of the Incan empire, though, was the Cuzco valley in Peru, where they originated. It is here that most of the interesting Inca sites can be found today. So, after spending some time around Lake Titicaca to acclimatise to the altitude, I found myself arriving in Cuzco after a long bus journey across the Altiplano from Puno. Today Cuzco is the third city of Peru and a very pleasant place to relax before taking on the challenge of the Inca Trail. At 3326m above sea level, although lower than Lake Titicaca, it is at quite an altitude, so I was glad that I had already acclimatised. It is also the oldest continuously inhabited city in South America, so there is a lot to see. Walking around the city, you see many examples of Inca walls – the huge blocks of stone cut and fitted together precisely. The Incas certainly knew how to build – in many places the Inca walls still stand, while those built by the Spanish conquistadors fell in the great earthquake of 1650. Just on the outskirts of Cuzco we found our first major Inca site. This is Sacsayhuaman – ‘satisfied falcon’ in the indigenous Quechua tongue, although most tourists know it as ‘sexy woman’, which reflects roughly how the name is pronounced! It’s a bit of a climb up to this site, but the view over the city below is well worth it. Unfortunately, because it is so close to the city, many of the stones forming the buildings that once stood here have long since been plundered for building purposes. Those that remain are the most massive and impressive rocks, especially those forming the main battlements. To the north of Cuzco is the valley of the Urubamba river – a tributary of the mighty Amazon. This is a pleasant, fertile land that was well used by the Incas, who knew it as the Sacred Valley. There are many places to see here – some of the most interesting include the Inca citadel at Ollantaytambo, and the salt pans of Maras. From Maras, a pleasant walk leads to Moray, a natural depression in the ground which – believe it or not – was used by the Incas as an agricultural laboratory! They carved terraces at different levels in the bowl, and used the differing micro-climates at the various levels to determine the best growing conditions for different crops. Before we left the Cuzco area, there was one more thing we wanted to do. The local delicacy cuy is better known to us as guinea-pig, and we just had to try it so our guide took us to a local restaurant that specialises in this dish. I can’t understand why it is regarded as a delicacy: not much meat on it in the first place, and the taste makes it hardly worth the difficulty of getting it off the bone. Still – now I’ve tried it, I don’t need to do it again! Then next morning it was time to start on the serious exercise. Our bus took us through the sacred Valley to the end of the road at Piscacucho, where we put on our boots and embarked on the first of four days hiking along the Inca Trail. The trail is long and high, but not technically difficult, and we had porters to help with our luggage and camping equipment. It was quite amazing to watch them bounding along the trail under their huge loads. We started off following the river, passing the Inca ruins of Llactapata before we reached our first campsite, where we were delighted to find that our porters had already set up camp and cooked a delicious meal for us. This was to be repeated every day – the porters staying behind to pack up after we had set off, then catching us up and passing us with huge grins during the day. After we had enjoyed the meal, we went outside to admire the starry sky. At this altitude, and far away from any city lights, the sky was truly dark – much darker than I had seen before. The Milky Way, rather than a barely-visible band of haze, was a highway of light, stretching right across the sky. I fell asleep feeling very happy that I’d made it this far, and looking forward to the adventure ahead. The second day on the trail is the most demanding. It’s a long climb through the cloud forest to the highest point on the trail, Warmihuanusca at 4240m above sea–level. The name actually means ‘Dead Woman’s Pass’, which was not lost on some of the female members of our group, many of whom felt as good as dead after the long slog in the thin air. We soon recovered, though, and went on our way, passing the ruins of Runcuracay and Sayacmarca before dealing with the second pass at 3980m on day three. On the fourth and final day of the trek, we started by descending the famous ‘Inca Steps’ – a two-kilometre stone staircase which had us all nursing our knees by the end of it. The views were fantastic – over to the peaks of the Vilcabamba Range and down to the Vilcanota River, far below. As we descended through the cloud forest, we arrived at the Inca ruins of Winay Wayna – a place named after a species of orchid that grows hereabouts. The name means ‘forever young’, and indeed the place did have a special feel about it. After the long trek, we felt as travellers on this road must have felt for hundreds of years – that we were finally within reach of our goal. As we walked onwards, we turned a corner, and there it was – spread out in all its glory below us, the sacred Inca city of Machu Picchu. We had arrived at Inti Punku, the Sun Gate – the entrance to the city. Machu Picchu is buried so deep in the cloud forest that it is also known as the Lost City. The high quality of the stonework reveals that it was clearly a site of enormous significance to the Incas, but very little is known about it. Archaeologists are therefore forced to rely heavily on educated guesswork. Undiscovered by the conquistadors, it was only rediscovered in 1911. We had arrived late in the afternoon so, after descending through the city, we visited the hot springs at Aguas Calientes to soak away our aches and pains, then set up camp at Puente Ruinas and went to bed, with the intention of getting up early to see the sun rise over the ruins. Unfortunately though, morning arrived shrouded in mist, so we spent a few extra hours in our sleeping bags. When we finally got back to the city, we were rewarded for our patience by stunning views, as the sun slowly broke through the mist. We then spent most of the day exploring the huge site before taking the train back to Cuzco for the long flight home via Lima. Looking out of the train window as it got dark, I caught sight of the planets Mercury and Venus alongside the thinnest sliver of a crescent moon, skimming the horizon – the perfect end to a memorable trip. First published in VISA 81 (Oct 2008) - view images |