Me and Sal at km 82 (the 82nd km along the train line to Machu Picchu from Cuzco). The Inca Trail is 45 km long.



The first Inca ruin we saw, on day 1. It was abandoned, probably due to an epidemic of Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever or Malaria, before the Spanish came.



Traditional beasts of burden carry loads for local farmers! Note - llama is pronounced 'yama', and is a quechua word transliterated into Spanish...



Dead Woman's Pass, at 4000m. More pics to follow later or tomorrow...


Echoes

The Spanish outlawed the Inca language, but now Quechua is Peru's other official language and the number of speakers is growing.

They destroyed temples and cities to get to the bronze and gold clamps holding the building blocks together, and to use the stone for conquistador forts, but today archeologists continue to discover new sites and interest in them only increases.

Spanish Catholocism was forced upon the natives, and the celestial gods of the Inca were all but forgotten. The common gods however, worshipped in the privacy of farmers' homes, are still revered today, and historians have uncovered the pantheon of celestial gods. The Chakana, the most sacred symbol of the Inca, is worn around the necks of many people in Peru today. Like Brazil's candomble, the people refused to have one religion forced upon them, and although many worship in Catholic churches, they also continued to follow the paths of the Inca deities.

They destroyed the ceramic records of the Inca people in Cusco, then said the Inca could not read or write. Today, we uncover the secrets of the Inca from old sources and new; from old Spanish reports of the indigenous culture they discovered in the New World, and from our archeologists, historians, anthropologists and architects. Some of Hyram Bingham's actions when he discovered Machu Picchu are questionnable, yet the tradition of rediscovery started by archeology and continued today by interest from tourism - a positive impact on local views of the Inca, a pleasant change from the norm - are invaluable.

The Inca Empire is well and truly gone, destroyed by the worst kind of European colonialism, yet the culture of Peru, a hybrid of European and native Indian, is strong, alive and vibrant, and the history of the Inca will never be forgotten.


There's so much to write about this. I'll talk more about the actual hike itself later or tomorrow when I have more time!! Later...  ¶ 7:12 AM