Bright Blue Eyed Country Girl

Rock climbing, Atv's, Mud Bogging, Art, Landscaping, Any sport, I love life and i'll try anything.

MY BABY, MY LOVE, MY ONLY KID! MY REDNECK DEISEL BOXER

The story of Machu Picchu is quite a remarkable one; it is still unknown exactly as to what the site was in terms of its place in Incan life. One thing that is clear is that it was a remarkably well hidden place, and well protected. Located far up in the mountains of Peru, visitors had to travel up long valleys littered with Incan check points and watch towers.Remarkably, the Spanish conquistadors missed the site, and Bingham only discovered the site by chance. On a wet day in 1911, he travelled up the slopes with a few companions from his expedition. On meeting local peasants, they told him about ancient ruins that covered the area. To Bingham's amazement, he had found the lost Incan city of Machu Picchu. In 1913, the site received a significant amount of publicity after the National Geographic Society devoted their entire April 1913 issue to Machu Picchu. Bingham made several more trips and conducted excavations on the site through 1915. He wrote a number of books and articles about Machu Picchu; his account, Lost City of the Incas, became a bestseller.It is generally thought that the city was built by the Sapa Inca Pachacuti starting in about 1440 and was inhabited until the Spanish conquest of Peru in 1532. Archeological evidence (together with recent work on early colonial documents) shows that Machu Picchu was not a conventional city, but a country retreat town for Incan nobility (similar to the Roman villas). The site has a large palace and temples to Incan deities around a courtyard, with other buildings for support staff. It is estimated that a maximum of only about 750 people resided in Machu Picchu at any one time, and probably only a small fraction of that number lived in the town during the rainy season and when no nobility were visiting.The site was probably chosen for its unique location and geological features. It is said that the silhouette of the mountain range behind Machu Picchu represents the face of the Inca looking upward towards the sky, with the largest peak, Waynapicchu, representing his nose. The Inca believed that the solid rock of the Earth should not be cut and so built this city from rock quarried from loose boulders found in the area. Some of the stone architecture uses no mortar, but rather relied on extremely precise cutting of blocks that results in walls with cracks between stones through which a credit card will not pass.In 2003, some 400,000 people visited Machu Picchu, and UNESCO has expressed concern about the damage this volume of tourism is causing to the site. Peruvian authorities insist that there is no problem, and that the remoteness of the site will impose natural limits on tourism. Periodically, proposals are made to install a cable car to the site, but such proposals have so far always been rejected.

The closest large town to the Inca Trail is Cuzco, the old imperial Inca capital, which was both the administrative and the religious centre of the empire. Seized by the Spanish in 1533 after the murders of the Incas Huascar and Atahualpa, many of the original Inca buildings were destroyed and their stone used to construct palaces and churches for the invaders. Much of the city was also burned during the rebellion of 1534. From Cuzco, air-conditioned tourist trains are available to take visitors directly to Machu Picchu. To follow the Inca Trail, take the local train and get off at Km.88. The trail starts here.

The trail crosses the river at Cusichaca ("Bridge of happiness" - the names of many of the places along the trail are Quechua names invented by Hiram Bingham, who led the expedition that (re)discovered Machu Picchu). There is a suspension bridge for walkers here.Close to the start of the trail there is a small Inca ruin. About half an hour's walk from the bridge at Cusichaca, there is a campsite consisting of a small walled enclosure by the side of the river, which at this point is cold, noisy and fast-flowing.
From the first campsite, the trail continues over level ground to Huayllabamba ("Place of Good Pasture"), a flat grassy area at an elevation of around 2000m. There are a few huts stretched along the banks of the river.

After Huayllabamba, the trail begins to climb slowly through fairly dense sub-tropical vegetation. The terrain changes with altitude, so that a little beyond Llupachayoc ("Place of Offerings") it gives way to light woodland. The trail continues to climb upwards beyond Llupachayoc.

The trail goes around to the right, and the woodland gives way to scrub, then to puna, bleak grassland and bare slopes. The ascent becomes increasingly steep, and the terrain increasingly rugged. Looking back from above Llupachayoc in the general direction of Huayllabamba shows the river valley far below.

The trail climbs steeply towards the first pass, the Abra de Huarmihuanusca ("Dead Woman's Pass"). This is marked by a green and white sign that shows it to be 4050m above sea-level. It tends to be fairly cold and windy due to the elevation. After the Abra de Huarmihuanusca, the trail descends steeply towards the valley of the Pacamayo river. At the bottom of the river valley is the second campsite, a small, unevenly sloping area large enough for only a few tents.

From the valley of the Pacamayo, the trail climbs steeply up the opposite side of the valley wall, towards the second pass. About halfway up is a small round roofless stone building. This Inca ruin is known as Runkuracay ("Pile of Ruins"). The building is thought to have been a tambo, a kind of way post for couriers following the trail to Machu Picchu. It contained sleeping areas for the couriers and stabling facilities for their animals.

After Runkuracay, the trail continues to climb towards the second pass, the Abra de Runkuracay, which is at around 3500m. On the far side of the pass, the trail descends towards a valley containing a shallow lake. At around this point, the trail changes from a dirt path to a narrow stone roadway. This is the beginning of the true Inca Trail; the stones of the roadway were laid by the Quechua people of the period of the Inca Empire.

The trail leads to a second, larger Inca ruin, Sayacmarca ("Town in a Steep Place"). Sayacmarca effectively controls the trail - which passes beneath it - at this point. It is built on a promontory of rock overlooking the trail, and is accessible only via a single narrow stone staircase. On the left of the staircase, which is about a metre or less in width, is an overhanging rock wall, which makes it difficult for a tall man to climb, while on the right is a sheer drop onto the rocks below.

Sayacmarca (which Bingham inexplicably decided to name Cedrobamba - "Plain of Cedars" - despite the fact that there are no cedars to be seen, and it's perched on a spur overlooking a valley) is roofless and overgrown, but the walls still stand and the shape of the fortress can easily be seen. Nearby is a stone aqueduct which once carried water to the site.

After Sayacmarca, the trail descends to the valley floor, and the roadway takes the form of a long causeway leading across what may once have been the bed of a shallow lake. On the far side, the trail begins to climb again. The roadway represents a considerable feat of engineering, including even an 8m tunnel section where the Inca engineers widened a natural fissure in the rock into a tunnel large enough to allow the passage of men and animals.

The trail leads up to the third pass and, just beyond it, a third Inca ruin, Phuyupatamarca ("Cloud-level Town"). This site appears to have had some ritual function; the rectangular structures along one side are baths, which were apparently fed from a spring higher up. The highest bath was reserved for the nobles, while the lower classes performed their ritual ablutions in the water which had already been used by the aristocracy.

Below Phuyupatamarca, the trail spirals and descends steeply towards Huinay Huayna, ("Forever Young"), the site of another Inca ruin. There is another campsite and a visitor centre nearby.

The final section of the trail, from Huinay Huayna to Intipunku is an easy hike, following a broad level path which winds comfortably through scrub and light woodland. Colourful butterflies flutter across the trail. After no more than an hour or two, the trail comes to a narrow flight of stone steps leading upwards into a small stone structure with a grass floor a few metres square. This is Intipunku, the Gateway of the Sun, and through the rectangular doorway, you can see the ruins of Machu Picchu . From Intipunku, a pathway leads directly to Machu Picchu itself.
MACHU PICCHU

View towards the Urabamba
Agricultural terracing
Interior terraces
Stone walls Walls showing different sizes of stones used
Intihuatana An Inca sundial at Machu Picchu