Machu Picchu -- 2/9/07

So I promised I would include a report on Machu Picchu, but after visiting it I realized that I cannot possibly do the site any justice in one paragraph in an email. Again, my pictures will do a much better job of even coming close to expressing how breathtaking it was. Here’s my attempt though: one of the many cool things about Machu Picchu is that the Incas kind of carved the city out of natural land formations. There are some places where they set an aptly shaped stone in such a place that it would serve as an altar to the mountain it resembled. After walking around the ancient city, our group climbed to the top of one of the mountains to an altar to Inti, the sun god. We made an offering of coca leaves to Pachamama (“Mother Earth” in Quechua), and stuck them in a little nook between stones so that they could decompose and turn back into earth. But alas, one must also keep in mind that Machu Picchu is not only a spiritual and historical site but also a huge tourist attraction. Our group was crudely reminded of this several times when our academic director was stopped by security guards and tour guides and admonished for educating our group about different aspects of the site instead of hiring a tour guide. Repeatedly, she had to explain that she was a native Peruvian and the leader of an educational group, that she was not charging us, and that tour guides do not have a monopoly on all information regarding Machu Picchu. Still, her efforts to informally educate us were not taken kindly.