Access to Machu Picchu is different from that of other historical monuments. Visitors need their passports and tickets issued by name. If I said we needed passports, because we were entering a site of Incan power, that would be romantic, but it wouldn’t be true. Machu Picchu is a fragile monument. It accommodates 2,500 visitors per day. Authorities issue tickets for that purpose. Unfortunately, unscrupulous people once gathered used and/or discarded tickets and sold them at black-market prices. Clerks now match the name of the person to whom the ticket was issued to the passport

The origins and purpose of Machu Picchu are still not entirely understood, and I was fortunate to have Jose Angle Ayerbe as my guide into the past. The site is 7,970 feet above sea level on the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains. Despite the pills I took to prevent altitude sickness, I was very aware my usual elevation is sea level. It’s a good thing we had a lot of history to discuss, because my lungs needed frequent breaks. Much of what I’m sharing is from conversations with Jose.

Even with Machu Picchu spread out before me, it was difficult to grasp that the site covers 80,000 acres, including religious, agricultural, and residential areas. The religious center stands to the left in the above picture, and the residential areas in the lower elevations. The terraces were used both for small crops and also as retaining walls. Other agricultural areas were located off site.

Despite it’s massive size, Machu Picchu was not particularly important. Cuzco, capital of the Incan Empire, is located far below. There are various theories about Machu Picchu’s purpose – a religious center, a retreat for The Inca, or simply a defensive site. Not so much a fortress as, perhaps, an early warning system. The Incas had conquered or made alliances with most of the surrounding people, but they were uneasy about the Amazonian peoples. The lower portion of the site, has a perimeter wall, while the upper portion was protected by the cliff face. There were also watchtowers.

The Incans built Machu Picchu sometime in the fifteenth century and left the site before it was completed. Over time, vegetation reclaimed the area, and it disappeared from history until Hiram Bingham III began excavating what he called the “Last City of the Incas” in 1911.

Bingham was looking for a different place – Vilcabamba, the last Incan capital. From Cuzco he traveled through the Urubamba Valley asking villagers for reports about Incan ruins. Bingham encountered a man named Melchor Arteaga, who didn’t know anything about Vilcabamba, but could lead Bingham to Incan ruins. Arteaga charged Bingham fifty cents to lead him to the site. Fifty cents doesn’t sound like much to us, but to Arteaga it represented wages for two and a half days’ labor.

Bingham, Arteaga, and an interpreter spent two hours climbing up the mountain to a small hut occupied by a few farmers. From here, a boy led Bingham’s party to what Bingham called

“an unexpected sight, a great flight of beautifully constructed stone terraces, perhaps a hundred of them, each hundreds of feet long and 10 feet high. . . Suddenly I found myself confronted with the walls of ruined houses built of the finest quality of Inca stonework.”

 Bingham believed he’d found Volcabamba. Bingham returned to the United States and raised funds from the National Geographic Society and Yale University to return to Machu Picchu in 1912. Bingham’s team excavated an estimated 40,000 artifacts. Some Bingham purchased outright; others were taken back to Yale for preservation. Artifacts from Yale were returned in 2012 and are now housed in a museum in Cuzco.

Such concerns seemed far away as I walked around the site. There was the man who, along with many other employees, spent his days pulling vegetation from between the stones.

And the awe I have for Incan engineers who leveled and terraced a mountain to create a city out of rock. Note also the amazing way they carved each stone to fit without mortar. The work was worth the effort, because it keeps buildings standing despite frequent earthquakes. The more important the building, the more seamless placement of stones.

Bingham called this building Casa de Inca – House of the Inca. He believed The Inca resided here. The structure stands at the upper level of the residential area and is actually part of a larger complex. There was an open courtyard where work and business took place, smaller rooms where people slept, a bathing area, an area to house servants, and even a small pen where animals could be kept prior to slaughter. But though the occupant was no doubt of high rank, he wasn’t The Inca.

I spent an afternoon and a morning at Machu Picchu. The time was too short. Yet, despite the need to go back down the mountain, I’m enriched for the experience. There are many reasons to visit Machu Picchu, but the most important is to expand your understanding of the peoples who came before.

Next Week – Galapagos Islands National Park

 Acknowledgements:

Featured Image: Photo of Author at look-out point taken by Jose Angel Ayerbe.

Unattributed Photos by Author. All Rights Reserved.

Photo of Hiram Bingham, US Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons.

Harry Ward Foote was Bingham’s expedition collector & naturalist in 1911. Photo taken from hand-colored glass slide. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

Hiram Bingham, “In the Wonderland of Peru.” National Geographic. 1913. Here.

Richard Cavendish. How Hiram Bingham discovered the ‘lost city of the Incas.’ History Today. Vol 61, Issue 7, July 1911. Here.

Whitney Dangerfield. Saving Machu Picchu. Smithsonian.com. April 30, 2007. Here. 

Travel Details:

Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, Machu Picchu. Here. 

Travel Arrangements:

Silversea Cruises Here.

Akorn Destination Management Here. 

American Airlines and their One World Partner LAN

The post Walking Through Machu Picchu first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Fortunately, Jose Angel Ayerbe was my guide. Seeing Machu Picchu through his eyes brought this enigmatic site to life. [Sidebar: If you decide to visit Machu Picchu, you might want to request Jose Angel Ayerbe’s services through Akorn Destination Management.]

There are many ways to get to Machu Picchu. Most of them start in Cuzco, the ancient Incan capital. A place that brings together Incan and Spanish architecture with high end shops for tourists dominating the Historic Square.

The Spanish built their cathedral in 1560 on the site of The Inca Viracocha’s palace. Spanish baroque architecture rises on perfectly matched Incan rock foundations. The Jesuit Church of the Company, built in 1571, stands nearby.

Sadly, I didn’t have enough time to explore Cuzco, though I did soak up some Spanish colonial flavor at the Belmond Hotel Monasterio. Originally built in 1592, the structure’s foundation is the Inca Amaru Qhala’s Palace. The Spanish used the site for a seminary. In 1965, the cloistered monastery became a hotel housing pilgrims of a different kind.

 The Way to Machu Picchu

At Cusco, we met our guide Jose Angel Ayerbe and with our driver set off for Urubamba. The road is, to say the least, bumpy and winding. The views are amazing and make the queasy journey rewarding. When we stopped for a few minutes, the stillness and quiet were almost otherworldly.

At last we reached Urubamba where we boarded the Belmond Hiram Bingham luxury train. Outfitted by Orient Express, PeruRail operates daily round trips from Urubamba to Machu Picchu. [Sidebar: If you go in high season, you can catch the train at Poroy Station, 20 minutes outside Cusco. Too bad we weren’t there at the right time, which is why we had to drive to Urubamba.]

The train is outfitted as part of the tourist travel experience. There are two dining cars and a bar/observation car. Lunch is served on white table clothes. Too bad I didn’t bring my tiara.

A trio of talented musicians provided a selection of tunes ranging from traditional Peruvian melodies to Beatles. Something for everyone.

Percussion is not played on drums but on a box. This unusual instrument is a legacy from slavery when the workers were not allowed to have any musical instruments, so they improvised, and the “Box” is still in use today.

A three and a half hour journey on narrow gauge track brought us to the train station at Aguas Calientes, the closest access point to Machu Picchu. The village boasts over one hundred hotels, souvenier shops, a local souveneir market, and restaurants. From here, visitors can walk one and a half hours to the summit or take the bus.

The bus is at a lower level than the train station and requires a stroll through the indigenous market. The road to the summit is basically one and a half lanes wide, which makes it interesting when the busses need to pass each other. No guard rails, but excellent views.

We arrived at Machu Picchu in time for lunch at the Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, a thirty room hotel a five minute walk from the entrance to Machu Picchu. It was a bucket list moment.

Next Week: Walking through Machu Picchu

Acknowledgements:

Featured Image: Urubamba River from heights of Manchu Picchu

Photos by Author. All Rights Reserved. [Exception: Shot of author with guide by anonymous tourist.]

Historical Center of Cusco City. Here. 

Society of International Railway Travelers. Hiram Bingham. Here.

Travel Details:

Belmond Hiram Bingham Luxury Train Here. 

Belmond Hotel Monasterio, Cuzco. Here. 

Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, Machu Picchu. Here. 

PeruRail. Here.

Travel Arrangements:

Silversea Cruises. Here. 

Akorn Destination Management Here.

American Airlines and their One World Partner LAN

The post Getting To Machu Picchu first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

It’s a long way from Hawai`i to Peru. Actually, it’s a long way from Hawai`i to anywhere – the downside of living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We flew from Hilo to Honolulu to Los Angeles to Lima. It was “time travel” in the sense that the destination, while bordering the same Pacific Ocean, was completely different.

First Stop: Miraflores District, Lima, Peru

In 1857, Miraflores became an official district of Lima, but it’s history reaches back to pre-Incan times. An eighteen-acre archeological site dominates an upscale residential and commercial area.

Huaca Pucllana is dated at the year 500 in the Common Era. Historical ruins are called huacas. Pucllana is the word for temple. Hence, Huaca Pucllana. Another interpretation says pucllay is a word in the Quechua language meaning game. So the site is one where ritual games took place.

Either way, Huaca Pucllana is epic testimony that a lot happened before the Incan period of dominance from 1476-1534. Prior peoples included the Wari (600-1000), and the Moche and Lima (200-600).

Huaca Pucllana was probably an administrative and cultural center. The dominant structure is a large adobe clay pyramid surrounded by seven staggered platforms.

Archeological digs look rather stark without material evidence. Fortunately, the Museo Larco, founded by Rafael Larco Hoyle (1901-1966) in 1926, is a short drive away. The museum was founded in Chiclin, but moved to Lima in the 1950s where it is in what was once the Luna Cartland family house, built in 1700. The most recent museum renovation was completed in 2010, making it a world class museum.

Rafael Larco Hoyle collected the museum contents between 1933 and 1941.

The Spanish colonial period began in 1532 when Francisco Pizarro (c.1471-1541) captured The Inca Atahualpa and told the native people that if they wanted him to return The Inca, they had to fill a room with gold. The people met the demand. Pizarro executed The Inca in 1533, the same year he completed his conquest and entered the Incan capital city, Cuzco.

In 1535, Pizarro founded Lima as the City of Kings. I can only presume he meant either himself alone, or perhaps all the conquistadors. Pizarro might have been a conqueror, but he was not without rivals. One, Diego Almagro, mounted a rebellion. Pizarro defeated and excuted his enemy after the Battle of Las Salinas, but he neglected to kill his rival’s son, who in 1541 assassinated his father’s killer. Pizarro’s remains are housed in an ostentatious chapel near the entrance of Lima Cathedral.

Pizarro authorized two buildings in 1535 – the City Palace and City Cathedral.

The Palace is constructed over what was once a large native bural ground and is still the seat of government and the residence of Peru’s president. There is a ceremonial guard. The guard changes every hour with a full-blown ceremony, complete with band concert, at noon.

In 1968, UNESCO named Lima’s historical center as a World Heritage Site due to its originality and high concentration of historic monuments built by the Spanish. In particular, UNESCO mentioned the intricate carved wooden balconies.

The balconies were designed so women could see out, but no one outside could see onto the terrace. The balconies survive due to the dry climate – only about three inches of rain annually.

The present Cathedral has fourteen side chapels, in Spanish baroque style. The nave is done in a simple fashion.

An unusual aspect of this cathedral is the placement of the transept to enable more high ranking people to be buried near the gold-plated high altar.

Thought I’d throw in this picture of me at the cathedral door – purely in the interest of scale.

The Cathedral and Monastery of San Francisco, located near the historic plaza, was consecrated in 1673, completed in 1774, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991. It contains an extensive complex of catacombs, because it was a city burial site until 1808 when the city established a cemetery outside Lima. About 25,000 people were buried here. Families could establish their own “niche”, but no remains were untouched in perpetuity. They had to be moved for new occupants. Archeologists discovered the catacombs in 1943.

There are other interesting artifacts on the site. The monastery maintained an extensive library, still in use by authorized persons. I was surprised to see that no effort has been made to house the old books in a climate controlled area – and they seem to be in good condition. There are also a number of paintings. One that I found especially interesting is the Last Supper by Diego de la Puente. We all know da Vinci’s illustration. De la Puente traveled throughout Peru. When he painted his monumental art piece, he included foods unique to Peru – chilies, potatoes, and guinea pigs. Also, he painted the devil hovering by Judas, the betrayer.

All this sightseeing made me thirsty and happy to return to the Belmond Miraflores Park Hotel – and its delicious ceviche and well stocked bar.

 Next Stop: Machu Picchu

See you next week.

 Acknowledgements:

Featured Image: Fountain in city park facing Museo Larco, Lima, Peru.

Photos by Author. All Rights Reserved.

Patrick O’Brian. Master & Commander

Belmond Miraflores Park Hotel, Lima. Here.

Huaca Pucllana More information about what life may have been like here.

Travel Arrangements:

Silversea Cruises. Here. 

Akorn Destination Management here.

American Airlines and their One World Partner LAN

The post LIMA – City of Kings first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.