El Camino Inka

Squeals of burning rubber and a little of my own terror echoed through my eardrums as my bus barreled down a one lane, switch-backing, guardrail-less mountain road into the sacred valley of the Inca’s not far from Cusco, Peru.  At the time I was sure my blog would never be updated again due to my fiery death at the bottom of sheer cliff deep in the Andes mountains (excuse my hyperbole).  However, Pachamama (the Inca equivalent of mother earth) must have taken pity on me (as Montezuma had already taken quite an extensive revenge on me) and I survived the bus ride.  Once we got there the sacred valley really turned out to be quite incredible.  The mountains towered around us in dramatic cliffs and thousand foot waterfalls falling into the lush green valley, much like Yosemite valley in the US.  Our tour guide turned out to be quite a character. He taught me how to play the zampoña (panpipes) and described how he had learned English (he was very fluent) despite never having gone to school or traveled abroad.  I hope to use a few of his tips.

 

Of course the main event in the Cusco region for us was hiking el camino inka (the inca trail).  In this corner of the world there are two seasons: the dry season and the rainy season.  Because this is the rainy season, this was the first four day backpacking trip I have ever brought 4 raincoats (2 gore-tex, 1 cheap plastic, and a disposable plastic poncho).  Of course, it also turned out to be the first four day backpacking trip I have ever been on where I needed five; it rained all four days and the water conquered the raincoats one at a time, high tech gore-tex and disposable alike.  I have never been more wet (showers and pools excluded), nor has most of my stuff.  Despite the rain, the hike was an absolutely incredible experience.  Breathtaking views were nearly continuous and at least half of the top 10 waterfalls I have ever seen crashed down the mountains.  Flowers of every imaginable variety entertained my camera and I for all four days.
    It was more than the views that took our breath away, however, as we climbed extremely steep steps for days at a time to elevations of more than 4200 meters (nearly 14,000 feet).  Ultimately, my mother and I both survived and made it to Machu Picchu.  Despite the extremely remote location, as far as backpacking goes, this was about as posh as it gets; we were served 4 course meals complete with a dining tent, tents were carried and set up by porters, and we were greeted each morning in our tents with coca tea.  The others in our group were very friendly; they were great company helped me with my Spanish quite a bit (Thank you Evan, Alex, Thomas, Melisa, Gabriela, and Tamara).  Mierdo de vaca was a favorite pre dinner card game.  After the hike we celebrated with roasted guinea pig, a local delicacy.

The ultimate destination of the hike was the lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu, we visited a number of Inca sites along the way.  The Incas (or rather the Quechuas, only the king was the Inca, the people were the Quechuas) were very accomplished; they built huge cities out of huge, perfectly carved stones (some weighing more than a few tons) by hand and without slave labor.  There were three pillars of Inca society.  The first is to help others; if I am building my house today you help me and I will help you build yours tomorrow.  The second is social work; when building a temple of a city everyone pitches in.  The third is to pay taxes; this is where is gets interesting.  They paid taxes by leaving home and doing work for a certain amount of time; either building a trail, guardhouse, etc.  The Inca (the king) had farmland that was worked as part of the tax system and if someone was injured paying their taxes they would be provided with food from the Kings supply.  Essentially the Inca’s were a socialist society.  

The beginning

Luxury Backpacking

Dead Woman's Pass: 4200m

The group

Me at an Inca Site

Machu Picchu

Roasted guinea pig

 

Ultimately, the Inca civilization fell when the Spanish conquistadors ravaged their society with disease and superior weaponry destroying much of their architect (and reused many of the foundations because of their high quality).  The Spanish never found Machu Picchu, in fact it wasn’t discovered until 1911 because of its remote location.  Appropriately however, when the King and Queen of Spain visited Machu Picchu in the 1980’s the central rock in the main plaza was moved in order to land the helicopter and was broken in the process.