Machu Picchu, The New Wonder of The World

"...I'm the future of the World

Hope was born from us

We are the people from tomorrow

I'm the early inspiration...

bringing this song just you..." (1986)

In 2006, we took a trip to Machu Picchu without much delay. Our 401k did the magic. We took six or seven weeks from work and we decided to visit this new world wonder. The new Footage is ours and we found it three days ago lost among one of our USB files. Come with us and experience this new world with your own eyes. Let's see what we have to start with.

Here is our first video: is actually the day we departed from Cuzco-Peru to Lima. If you look carefully through the window from this 747, you will notice the complex mountain ranges called, "Andes ." The pilot announced first the temperature and weather conditions in Spanish.

From Cali-Colombia To Lima-Peru

We spent over four weeks in Colombia; the weather was outrageously humid. Temperatures never came down from those sultry 89 degrees. We were relieved when we took the plane to Peru. The trip from Cali to Lima lasted 2 1/2 hours. The view was outstanding. The Andes are a Mountains system that became the backbone of South America. They formed during the Cretaceous period (about 138 million to about 65 million years ago).

Lima-Peru

We landed in Lima-Peru on November 16, 2006. This Capital Was founded by Conquistador Francisco Pizarro in 1535. The beaches were amazing. Yeah! Okay! Women too! Yes, Tammy! Yes Lathing! Yes Kelly U.! Yes Faith Reaper! Yes Maria Jordan! Yes Rubi and Rasma! Yes Martie! Yes Billy and Curiad! No Josh!

Took us another 45 min on this DC 10 plane, shown above, to get to Cuzco. This Inca capital was founded by Manco Capac, the First Inca Monarch around 1215, right when the Magna Carta was being signed by King John I.

The Hotel

Like Mary Hyatt, we made reservations from the U.S. We were received by a limo service that took straight into the Hotel. We chose the Midori Hotel, near downtown Cuzco. It was a Colonial House that got restored in the mid 80's. Let's take a peek into our room. Yes Janine! I know!

We were warned by the Hotel tourist guide that the trip would take us about 4 hours from The train Station to the Bottom of the plateau where Machu picchu was built around 1461. Is already confirmed that Inca Emperor Pachacuti, gave the go ahead to make this project a reality. We left Cuzco around 5:55 a.m. There is so much information that we are just going with the flow and the new footage. The trip was amazing. We were riding this Vistadome tourist train through an extensive valley that narrowed into a chain of mountains. Sometimes we felt like Moses getting near that Sinai Mountain. The video speaks by itself. At times we could see traces of hidden tunnels scattered in between the mountains, that witnessed the Inca Grandeur.

if you decide to walk from Cuzco, it would take you 5 days to cover those 50 miles, going North-west. The descendants are still there all over the valley. What we notice and found out later was the lack of oxygen. We were already over the 7,200 feet above sea level. That morning was kind of chilly. It actually changed from 50 degrees Fahrenheit at 5.a.m. to 68 degrees by 9 a.m.

It was 9:45 when we arrived to the final destination: "Aguas Calientes." How did we feel? Excited, touched and at times moody; our father passed away two weeks before. The next step? Take a Charter bus to the "top of the world." Machu Picchu is situated on a mountain ridge above the train station terminal. Why did Pachacuti chose this plateau? There are plenty of theories, but let's share our own. If you see the picture to your right. You will see the "Huayna Picchu" behind these breath taking ruins.

It might represent the Inca itself embracing its people, represented by the two small mountains to the left. Pachacuti was 20 or 23 years old when he decided to build these Sanctuary. Archaeologists found mummies from women, and curiously 18% of them were males. What does this mean? Most likely it was a place to worship the Sun and other deities from nature.

They never tell you something that you will experience: after certain point the Bus cannot go more. You are faced with a 12 floor Inca stairway. So if you decide to go, you will be challenged to take a deeper breath and start walking your way up into history. In the Live footage above, the Guide asks us to leave everything negative in our minds behind. Porbably he already knew his lines, but he also ask us to keep this place as a mistery, and losen ourselves up and connect with the energy of the place. Did we feel it? We felt hungry to be honest. But we felt peace and internal euphoria. The rest was just excitement; walking the walk with history.

Inca engineers came and checked the area. They knew it was dangerous to built a complex city on a humid and wet area on a mountain plateau. What was their first approach? Enter their hydraulic engineers and start working on terraces or andenes. This way the soaking system would be able to channelize the rain fall, even for their own water consumption. Free Masons from around that time did solve the problem with a similar solution.

Did they ever come to Inca Peru? We do not know, but we have written about a fallen God that was all over the world. So far, researchers and history erudite came to a final, not so final conclusion: Machu Picchu was a huge Worshipping Citadel, not armed, but big enough to be the envy of the Holly Roman Vatican. Rumors has it that it was the place where Pachacuti could spend his "summers" with the most beautiful women (sun virgins) chosen from the whole Empire. Just think of Alexander the Great having a wonderful time in ancient Persia. But, this time Pachacuti had to pay homage to his God called Inti.

If you studied a trade or an occupation, you needed at least a way of keeping record of your grades and studies. How did they manage to keep their own accounting and harvesting? They invented their own system called "Quipu." There is something fishy in all these history taught so far. For us the mystery will be solved one day. They had to know about angles and construction in order to work on those terraces. Somehow Spaniards destroyed most of the evidence through its own "scape goat" Inquisition.

Just open your mind and forget about religious limitations. The Incas along with Egyptian Mayans and Aztecs worshipped their own gods. In the following footage, we are walking down to a small area dedicated to the Condor. At the very bottom we can see an stylized condor that is held down. Our guide told us that back then it was an honor to drink a corn juice called "chicha" with your fellow friends, and pour some of your drink on the head of the Condor, just to share the moment with a deity. I guess they felt like John The Baptist in their own right and time.

It was about 4:15 p.m. and we felt hungry. We did our last effort to step up to the ultimate area called, "Intiwatana." The guide was already telling other tourist about the purpose of this humongous polished boulder. I was designed to capture the sun and its shade. A way to find the best months for harvesting and adoration. There was so much mystery and this article left things aside. What we felt was dizziness and some kind of internal stupor. Just think of being there and feel what they felt, kneeling down and asking for a good year and prosperity. Don't the Olympics start with your National Anthem after you win? On November 28, we said bye and.. we felt like Leonardo DiCaprio: "We were on the top of the world..!"