Simple, Solid, Symmetrical...and Sexy

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The porters whispered a gracious "buenos dias" into our tent flap and offered us our choice of hot poison: coffee or coca tea. A bowl of hot water to wash our faces soon materialized, as well. Our final day on the Camino Inka (or Inka Trail). The other trekking groups had left hours earlier, sometime around 3am, to catch a sunrise that would never be considering the morning clouds. We were waking at the more sensible hour of 6 am, and would get to experience the mysteries of Intipata, a cascade of Inkan terraces wreathed in fog, all to ourselves before we set forth for our final destination: Machu Picchu.

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Those who know me well are familar with my tendency to travel solo, but I went against the grain this time and joined an extended group of friends to make the famous four day hike along the Inka Trail. Indeed, this portion of my trip was the nucleus of my entire South American adventure. A lucky thirteen composed of an eclectic bunch of Atlantans, former Atlantans (including one now in Hawai'i), and, of course, some DCers, we rendezvoused in Cuzco on July 5. Any trepidations I had about traveling in a group soon dissipated once we were heading into the Sacred Valley and onward. We became an extended family, with all the quirks that entails, enjoying - and suffering! - the travails of our journey to the "Lost City."

I had expected the hike to be strenuous, but all of us, I believe, found the climbs and descents more than personal challenges. On day two, we asended the highest point, the Dead Woman's Pass (Warmiwañuska), a breathless 4201 meters. On day three, we covered 14 km of crazily haphazard steps (what were the Inkas thinking?), up and down, up and down. But throughout the journey, I was distracted by the poetry of the Inka ruins and their melodic names: Saqaywaman, Ollantaytambo, Q'entimarka, Runkuraqay, Sayaqmarka, Wiñaywayna, Intipata, Intipunku. All representing, according to our fearless guide, Jose, the three elments of Inkan architecture: simplicity, solidity, symmetry (we decided there should be a fourth: sexiness...) There was also the amazing variety of climates and ecosystems we experienced: winter colds at night, blazing heat in the midday sun, the valley deserts, the dripping cloud forests of the middle slopes, the "elfin" forests and grasslands of the high plains, the snowcaps of the Lord of the Rings peaks that loomed overhead. Porters, with incredible weight on their backs and often wearing only rubber sandals, charged past us as we huffed and puffed along. We felt like such soft Americans (and Indians)...

When we finally arrived at Intipunku, the Sun Gate - hours after the poor saps who had woken at 3am! - we settled in for the big show. It was somewhere below us, hidden in the fog. Then, as if unveiling, it appeared. We had made it to Machu Picchu...

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Comments

[Sheldon]

Inca on the Hill
Wow - that's some trek! Yeah and as you say, what were those Inkans thinking? Man, it definitely seemed worth it to me though. Yeah some of those indigenous Americans had a propensity for the high life. The Pueblo people of Colorado lived up on Mesa Verde but of course that's at most 2k m, nothing like the 4k m you had to trek. I have a stupid and inconsequential question though, you keep spell 'Inka' with a 'k'. Is that a more proper transliteration than the traditional 'c' or used in certain circles?

[cemkess]

I am following the Quecha spelling (the Inkan language), which seems to be having something of a resurgence. I have even seen Cusco being spelled "Qosqo"!