MACHU PICCHU

I have embraced the project of taking long pauses in order to reflect as part of my personal development. I intend to instate other sabbatical periods, just as it happened with the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. In parallel, whenever possible I try to perform short outings, to have a bird's eye perspective on engagements and decisions to be made.

I have done this recently. For four days I walked through the Inca Trail, South of Peru. I picked a sacred location to regain my energies and meditate. Such trip took on a double function, first to set the implementation of my consultancy services in corporate governance and then to revisit projects that were underway. I also had the opportunity to feel and even "see" the energies of the place. I felt the thrill of discovering Machu Picchu, the lost city, and was able to think about my activities as a consultant, writer and professor.

As I usually do, I got myself some guides, visited sites and paged books on the issue. The trip provided me with an endless array of learning experiences.

The arrival at the High Lands

The closets international airport to Machu Picchu is in the capital of Bolivia. For those of us accustomed to moderate altitudes, I for example live in São Paulo, landing in La Paz is at the same time dazzling and disturbing. From afar you can observe the snow peaks and below our feet the whole extension of the city. The airport is at a distance of 4.150 meters. It is the commercial airport located in the highest level above sea, and for some concealed reason, it is called El Alto (the high one).

tepping down the plane is the first difficulty, carrying the luggage is the second one. I didn't feel shortness of breath as expected but the sensation of weakness and my head swirling was violent. A half hour ride takes you to downtown La Paz, 3.600 meters, where in general tourists spend the first day resting in bed at the hotels. Light food is recommended since the digestion process becomes extremely slow. Actually, even thinking takes a slow pace.

The next day after my arrival I took a plane to Cusco, Peru. I neglected using my tooth brush and my comb so as not to spend the little energy I had opening and closing my cramped backpack. It was a good think arriving five days prior to starting the trekking, it gave me the chance to get used to the altitude.

Sacred Valley

The Urubamba River, also known as Vilcamayo in its initial stretch, commences in the Titicaca, the great lake which divides Bolivia and Peru. Goes towards the North receiving important tributaries and forming the Ucayali, then the Solimões and finally our Amazonas. At the South of Peru, in the region called Cusco, it runs through the Sacred Valley of the Incas, made up by mountains, some covered with snow and others by tropical vegetation. There are fine archaeological sites, like Ollantaytambo and Pisac, a legacy of the Inca civilization.

The capital of the Incas was the city of Cusco, where the reenactment of the Inti Raymi takes place. I was lucky enough to watch, together with thousands of people coming from the region and from other countries as well, in the ruins outside Cusco, this ceremony which renders homage to the Sun, considered a god. Hundreds of extras, in typical colorful outfits dance and sing to a music that resembles a mantra for hours and hours, first in the platforms of the temple of Koricancha and later at the Sacsayhuamán fortress. The highlight of the party is the representation of the sacrifice of an animal. In the original ritual, a black llama was offered to the gods and through the last movements of its innards, the highest priest could predict the future.

A city filled with enigmas

Machu Picchu, important economic, cultural and religious center for the Incas, is without any doubt, the most intriguing relic of the Sacred Valley. Its pre and post Columbian history has not yet been totally revealed. It seems certain to have been used as shelter for the noble class, priests, artists and connoisseurs in architecture, astronomy and other sciences.

Occupies the top of a hard to access mountain, protected by highest mountains, by the Urubamba River canyon, in a region covered by thick forests. High peaks around Machu Picchu protect the four corners -- or suyos, in the quechua language of the region. Those peaks represent the gods apus, lords of the mountains. The neighboring Hauynapicchu mountain has three peaks called Salcantay, Willaweq'e (or Verónica) and Pumasillo. My guide to the trail, Jim, typical sun of the Sacred Valley, told us that the tree peaks represented for the Incas the father, the mother and the sun, respectivelly. Or else, the moon, the sun and the stars. Jim talks about the past as if it were still the present. The Inca culture seems to be impregnated of the inhabitants of the region.

Contrary to what I saw in Santiago de Compostela, few are the cases and legends about Machu Picchu in verbally transmitted tradition. According to the Peruvian professor Darwin Camacho Paredes, the city was built between 1400 and 1530, in other words before Pizarro, the Spanish invader, devastated the whole empire which might have started in 1100. There is no consensus among scholars, but the city seems to have been forsaken before being discovered by the Spaniards.

From 1535 till 1572 the Incas, under the leadership of Manco Inca and later of Tupac Amaru, fought against the Europeans. Countless constructions and communication means between cities were destroyed. Apparently the Incas took special people, those considered sacred, to a place where they would be protected to continue in their spiritual search. The Inca nation disappeared, but Machu Picchu remained almost untouched.

Little is known about its population. Researchers found tombs by the hillsides which revealed an interesting fact: more than 60% of the skeletons belonged to women. What might have happened? No conclusive answer has been derived.

Machu Picchu has enormous terraces, which were used as crop land. The urban part has majestic constructions, like temples, palaces and astronomy observatories. Nowadays the names given to the constructions are Sun Gate (Intipunku), Temple of the Three Windows, Temple of the Waters, Temple of the Condor.

The urban part has an enormous area in its center used to perform rituals and festivals. According to evidence, a great amount of dwellers flocked from the four corners to take part in such events.

In the West side, in an elevation, the sacred pyramid of Intihuatana can be spotted, showcasing how the Incas mastered architectonic techniques, besides their deep knowledge on the solar movement.

Esoteric Site

Running the risk of being inaccurate, I am trying here to assemble fragments of what I witnessed, heard and read, invested by the authority of someone who is curious about the matter.

There are those who state that Machu Picchu is still as much alive as ever, that the sacred energies were there before the arrival of the Incas. I perceived that, at least, it is a place out of the ordinary when I laid my left hand on the top of a big rock called Reloj del Sol (clock of the sun), considered as a rock that releases energy. I put my hand down and for the first time in my entire life I saw my aura. In each one of my fingers an orange colored crown was formed, then turned into red which surrounded my whole hand. Awesome!

Some esoteric experts state that the Atlantida, the legendary continent located above the Equator, between Europe and America, might have emerged abruptly. Many survivors may have been able to sale to bordering continents. Some migrated to the American continent, entering through where are now Mexico and the United States. Others went to Europe and to the North of Africa. Much more advanced than the natives, the Atlantis would have acted as teachers and priests in the new lands. Among those who went to Europe, a group entered through the North side of the Iberia Peninsula, creating the route which today is the Santiago Trail or Camino de Santiago. Many of its members crossed through all Europe and their offsprings reached the Middle East up to the Far East, so that, at the end of the day, Atlantida would have been the breeding ground of great civilizations around the planet.
The ones who disembarked in Mexico gave birth to the first seeds of the Aztec and Maya civilizations. Their descendants migrated to the South, taking with them the embryo of the Inca culture.

I can't tell whether the Inca culture reflects or not the Celtic culture, highly present in the Santiago Trail, but the celebration of the solstice is part of both. The Temple of the Three Windows, according to some renders tribute to Mother Earth, the Pachamama, has windows pointing from East to West which show, among other things, the sunrise during the winter solstice - in the month of June, here in the Southern Hemisphere.

Besides Celtics and Atlantis, such construction might have been dedicated, as well, to animals which symbolized the three worlds of the Inca universe: the condor, representing heaven, the jaguar or panther which represent the present life and the snake representing the inner world, the non physical world.

The three windows would be, furthermore, the result of the Inca numerology system. The number one symbolized the Creator of the Universe, Wiracocha. The number two meant duality, complements, opposition. The number three represented the spiritual dimension of life.

Mi guide Jim told hat the Spanish conquerors heard that the natives had a city made of gold, copy of Cusco, or Eldorado (the golden). They went out looking for the golden city, which was actually Machu Picchu, and found nothing.

Jim referred to Eldorado to explain something that happened to him some years ago. An elderly gentlemen got in touch with him in Cusco expressing that he wanted to go to Machu Picchu as porter. Jim resisted since it is a heavy duty function even for the younger people, still in the end he consented given the perseverance of the man, who performed his job with excellence. When in face of Intipunku, the man forgot his tiredness and fled running still carrying the tourists´ luggage. He stopped at the Sun Gate, sat down and shrank his body. Crying he told Jim: "Look, boss, Machu Picchu has light!". Jim then learned that the old man was a sorcerer. Jim commented that he felt deeply moved at that time. And made the following remark: "The old man, to get to Machu Picchu and find the depth of his roots had to play as porter. He arrived and found the answer to the question he had always carried in his heart!"

The trail

I walked with a small group of people, Jim, plus the porters, from Aguas Calientes until Machu Picchu. The trail is not for amateurs. It demands physical endurance, determination and body fitness. It is a very attractive region, filled with small creeks, cliffs, lots of rocks and huge mountains.

But the lack of oxygen is quite a challenge. I felt difficulties to be able to utter a word and even to breathe. During the whole time we are exposed to high altitudes, reaching up to 4.250 meters. Following orientations, to lighten my load, I carried only a backpack with a three to four kilos load. The larger backpack was beared by the porter.

In the first night, when setting the tent by a wonderful creek, I was careful enough to use two thermal insulators under my sleeping bag since the ground was just too cold. The next day I made a six kilometer stretch, going from an altitude of 2.950 meters to 3.800, walking for four hours non stop. This was harder than any other thing hat I might have done in the Camino de Santiago.

The trail was quite empty. I encountered groups of teenagers, families with grown up kids, couples and many lonely walkers. On the second day, at bed time we were surprised by an emergency call. At a higher altitude above the camp a lady started to feel very sick. Jim left the camp site carrying a bottle of oxygen, climbed from 3.600 to 4.200 meters, went down another 50 meters to meet the lady and brought her down to where we were carrying her in his back. At the camp site we gave her chocolate, salt and a steaming cup of tea with lots of sugar. Fortunately, the hypothermia subsided and she woke up well the next morning. All the members of the camp got together to prepare a porridge and a community made omelet.
The following night I slept at the top of a 3.700 meter mountain, overlooking the valley, with a 360 degree view of the mountain range and the snow. The image seemed surrealistic. Awake, I felt like I was dreaming.

The last stretch of the trail is made up by 2.500 small steps, very narrow indeed. It is necessary to descend backwards so as not to fall. The landscape includes snow peaks and rocks. Then it becomes more tropical, with birds, dicksonia trees and exuberant vegetation.

I felt a thrill when I took a first glimpse at Machu Picchu, magnificent and magnetic! Seen from the Sun Gate the city is absolutely beautiful. Half an hour later I was walking calmly through the central part. I had the privilege of spending the night there, feeling that a very ancient world is mingled and intertwined with the present.
I felt deeply satisfied for having been able to, step-by-step, employ my very best effort in a quest of the true exercise of being.