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On a Mission in Peru –– Day 9

So we went to Machu Picchu today, kinda cool I have to say. I mean the whole part of waking up at 7 a.m. and getting on a train, sitting there for three hours while descending from 12,000 ft to 8,000 wasn’t what I would call a rare old time, but the actual city of the Incas was cool. We had a personal tour guide, which was nifty, and he showed us around the ruins for a good two or three hours. The buildings and why they were there made sense, but truthfully, I seriously doubt that we have any ACTUAL idea of what is at Machu Picchu and why it is there. But anyway, we got to be inside “the Kings house” which was neat, the guy had his own private lavatory system, which I found … slightly amusing. By the way I should throw in there that “Inca” means King, so technically “Incans” means Kings, pretty cool right? I thought so too. Apparently men and women are relatively equal within the Incan “pecking order”, pretty progressive if you ask me for the 15th century. Pachacutec the 9th Incan ruler, is responsible for all of this progression, and he is the man credited with turning the Incan regime into an Empire which ranged from Bolivia and Ecuador, to Chile. Its capital was Cusco and Machu Picchu was thought to be his home and a gathering place for the very religious and spiritual leaders from the Incan empire. He created new customs that forbade the sacrifice of human life, put more emphasis on new technologies, and he was the man responsible for creating Machu Picchu, and the mythical city of Vilacamba, as the new Incan capital. Vilacamba is believed to be the last bastion of hope for the Incans from the Spanish. The professor from Yale University, Hiram Bingham, was in search for Vilacamba, and when he and band of merry men stumbled upon Machu Picchu in 1913, he believed that this city was indeed the capital. Turns out the guy was wrong, but oh well. Machu Picchu is a relatively small community, having about 160 or so homes, that would have been able to house 600 to 800 people. The Spanish never discovered Machu Picchu and the villagers left it when Vilacamba was established. It is special because it is its original form of 15th century existence, unchanged by the conquering Spaniards.  Anyways, I learned all of this info in a little bit over two and half hours, so just think what one could learn if they actually TRIED to pay attention, and if they spent some more time exploring this ancient wonder.

Nate Moyer, student studying Spanish with Mrs. Morris