Inca Heart

Machu Picchu














The Inca sites of Peru are hard to describe... Having come up into the mountains from the state of Acre which is barely a hundred years old (official founding 1902 after revolution and separation from Bolivia) the first thing that strikes you when you arrive in the valley of Cuzco is the sheer density of tradition. Although the centre of the old Inca capital itself has now been taken over by international tourism, there is still a clear sense of the independent history and the depth of the pre-western tradition. We explored Cuzco from a base in the ancient Temple of the Sun Virgins, ´acclahuasi´(now contained in the Hotel Loreto) and loved the Koriqancha, the
ancient Temple of the Sun (converted into the Spanish church of Santo Domingo) that was apparently once lined with sheets of gold...


We soon ventured up to the classic Valley of the Urubamba river, known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas, this is the location of many of the great
Inca ritual sites and fortresses. We headed straight up to the town of Ollantaytambo, on a good tip from my sister! There you can see a massive head carved into the cliff face (on left
of 2nd image, just in the sunlight) said to represent the messenger of the creator God Viracocha hanging above the magnificent terraces and gazing across at the fortress.

From Ollantaytambo we took the backpacker train on up to Aguas Calientes, below the great site of Machu Picchu...
Although this has been so widely described and so deeply overtaken by mass tourism, we were able to get an independent feel for the place by getting up at 4:30 and walking up from Aguas Calientes to catch the dawn on the classic peak- still an awe-inspiring experience due to the spectacular setting and the light of the Andean dawn. One thing really stood out- the way the terraces are cut directly out of cliff-like drops on both sides... apparently the Incas had a profound sense of the natural energies of a place, often dedicating their ritual sites on a natural
rock formation or near a sacred water spring. There were said to be lines of power connecting the sacred points know as Huacas and ritual sites have a strong connection to these lines. Machu Picchu is therefore situated between two peaks and surrounded by a loop in the river on both sides.

Within it, one of the most influential spots, with spectacular views is the Intihuatana or ´hitching post of the sun´- this is an intricately carved stone, something like a sun-dial, that was used to calculate the winter solstice (June 21st in the Southern hemisphere) by a change in the direction of shadow as the suns shifts to the South. This way the seasons could be accurately charted for successful agricultural production. In the Inca mind, ritual and sacred practice was totally connected to practical every-day situations, so the need to understand the movement of the sun was linked to offers of gifts and sacrifices of maize beer, coca leaves or llama blood to the
sun god, known as Inti, in order to guarantee a good year and a successful harvest. Machu Picchu, for example, may have had experimental plantations for medicinal plants, as well as temple structures The sacred was present in the practical and so human activitiy was entirely caught up in a universal pattern, humanity was not outside the natural world but deeply embedded in its processes.
Rather than dominate the sacred cycles, the Incas felt they should respect and be
shaped by them...

Intihuatana in Machu Picchu