Machu Picchu

Ever since Hollywood's motorcycle diaries probably everybody in mass media world knows about the mystical centre of South America, the remembrance of the once dominating Inka culture which had been buried under tropical forest until 1911. Just the fact that the Spanyards did not know about the place and that it was already left when the conquerors entered the sacred valley kept it from getting plundered like the other important Inka places. Maybe it was even the reason for the inhabitants to leave the village, taking their sanctuaries with them and prevent like this their destruction. We could still see some of the destruccion caused by the rainfalls in January, getting an even better impression of the elusiveness of the place. Few local settlements are being overruned by world's mass tourism nowadays.

Two days ago it took at Jasper and me to discover the lost city, climbing up the hill at four in the morning with other gasping tourists resulting in an astonishing quiet place which allowed us to take an unpeopled postcard foto. Astonished by its size which you can't explore on the overview, we learned about equinox windows, 13 degrees constructions, montain's gods and holy women. The energy of the place, sourrounded by sharp montain peaks and almost imposible to reach, definitly was impressive although we did not bring our violet meditation dresses.

And something else we finally have been meeting in the sacred valley: Latinamerican Tourists. In Bolivia, all tourism was limited to the Industrialized world's citizens, even seeing their own natural treasures seemed to be economically imposible for the Bolivians. Now, middle and upper class from Peru, Argentina, Colombia and Brasil go shopping around Cuzco's expensive Plaza de Armas and discover the routes of the continent. Its our last hours in the altitude before we go this afternoon to Lima by another 20 hours bus. Videos about how we were climbing up stairs in the altitude will be kept secretly.