CORDILLERA VILCABAMBA, RETRACING MANCO INCA’S RETREAT PERU 1980 Trek into Peru’s remote mountains

The Cordillera Vilcabamba in the Peruvian Andes is a vast mountain chain of striking beauty, and part of the longest mountain range in the world: the Andes. It is a place of cultural history from pre-Columbian Tiahuanaco to the Inca, and the historical last resistance, then retreat of Manco Inca, son of the third Sapa Inca Huayna Capac from the Spanish conquistador Pizarro brothers in 1542. The Vilcabamba is located in southern Peru Northwest of Cusco, bounded by the deep gorge of the Apurimac river to the southwest, the river Tambo-Ene to the northwest and the Urubamba river to the northeast. The area I was to explore beginning in the valley of Nevado Salcantay, and ending in Vilcabamba also known as Espiritu Pampa in the Amazon basin, was the last stronghold of the Manco Inca. I was the guest of Mountain Travel and Explorandes in 1980 to trek for four weeks of the Vilcamamba that was largely unexplored and virtually unvisited by outsiders. The southern part of the range lies the famous Inca ruin Machu Picchu, which lies directly north of Nevado Salkantay at the end of a ridge that extends from this mountain, our starting point. Viewed from Machu Picchu's main sundial, the Southern Cross is above the summit of Salkantay when at its highest point in the sky during the rainy season. The Incas associated this alignment with concepts of rain and fertility, and considered Salkantay to be one of the principal deities (Apu) controlling weather and fertility in the region west of Cuzco. Often referred to as "The Lost City of the Incas", Machu Picchu is one of the most familiar symbols of the Inca Empire. In Quechua language, Old Peak is a pre-Columbian Inca site located 8,000 ft (2,430 m) above sea level on a mountain ridge above the Urubamba Valley. The Inca Pachacutec started building the site around AD 1430 but was abandoned as an official site a hundred years later at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire. Although known locally, it was largely unknown to the outside world before being brought to international attention in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, an American historian. Machu Picchu was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. Since it was not plundered by the Spanish conquistadors, it is especially important as a cultural site. The Inca trail is a part of the many roads and trails constructed in pre-Columbian South America. The Inca road system, or Qhapaq Ñan was the most extensive and highly advanced for its time with a network based on two north-south roads. The eastern route ran high in the puna and mountain valleys from Quito, Ecuador to Mendoza, Argentina. The western route followed the coastal plain except in coastal deserts where it hugged the foothills. More than twenty routes ran over the western mountains, while others traversed the eastern cordillera in the mountains and lowlands. Some of these roads reach heights of over 16,000 ft (5,000 m) above sea level. The trails connected the regions of the Inca empire from the northern provincial capital in Quito, Ecuador south over 3000 miles (5200 km) past the modern city of Santiago, Chile. The Inca road system linked together an estimated about 24,000 miles (40,000 km) of roadway and provided access to over three million km² of territory.

These hands built stone roads provided easy, reliable and quick routes for the Empire's civilian and military communications, personnel movement, and logistical support. The prime users were imperial soldiers, porters and llama caravans, along with the nobility and individuals on official duty. Although the Inca roads varied greatly in scale, construction and appearance, for the most part they varied between about one and four meters in width. Because the Incas did not make use of the wheel for transportation, and did not have horses until the arrival of the Spanish in Peru in the 16th century, the trails were used almost exclusively by people walking, sometimes accompanied by pack animals, usually the llama. Relay messengers, or chasqui, stationed at intervals of 6 to 9 km, carried both messages and objects such as fresh marine fish for the rulers in the sierra. Messages consisted of knotted-cord records known as quipu along with a spoken message. Chaskis could cover an estimated 240 km per day. There were at least 1,000 and perhaps 2,000-way stations or tambos, placed at even intervals along the trails. These structures were intended to lodge and provision itinerant state personnel. Various means were used to bridge water courses. Rafts were used to cross wide meandering rivers. Bridges built of stone or floating reeds were used in marshy highlands. Inca rope bridges provided access across narrow valleys. A bridge across the Apurimac River, west of Cuzco, spanned a distance of 45 meters We would drive to Mollepata located 60 km (40 mi) west-northwest of the city of Cusco. Along with a Peruvian guide, and with porters and mules, we began our four-week journey following a route that ascends steeply to Salcantay Pass 13,213 ft (4,638m) below Nevado Salkantay, the highest peak of the Cordillera Vilcabamba at 20,574 ft (6,271 m). It is the 38th highest peak in the Andes, and the twelfth highest in Peru. The name Salkantay is from salka, a Quichua word meaning wild, uncivilized, savage, or invincible, and was recorded as early as 1583. The name is thus often translated as "Savage Mountain". Its sister peak is Humentay 19.412 ft. (5,917 m). The trail descends in the shadow of Humentay from the pass to a bridge across the Rio Santa Teresa where there is a small hot spring. This river flows north into the Urubamba as Santa Teresa Townsite. We would instead hike west and follow a trail towards the headwaters of the Santa Teresa River ascending from the village of Colcapampa to Yanama. Camping several days at Yanama, we leave the rainforest to the south crossing Victoria pass above the village 30 km to spend several days exploring the Inca Ruin Choquequirao perched above the Apurimac River. Choquequirao (Southern Quechua: Chuqi K'iraw, Cradle of Gold) is a partly excavated Inca Ruin that bears a striking similarity in structure and architecture to Machu Picchu and is referred to as its 'sister'. The site reveals the Inca’s ingenious blend of various Andean and Amazonian materials and decoration, as well as stonework that is as equally impressive as in the Sacred Valley. Here there are irrigation channels, agricultural terraces, and spiritual centers. Returning through vertical walls several thousand feet deep below Victoria Pass, we then return to Yanama. We would continue to ascend the Rio Santa Teresa tributary a small distance before

turning north to ascend and cross on still existing Inca stone stairways Choquetacarpo pass west of the Pumassila Massif. Pumasilla 19,655 ft. (5,991 m) or Pumas paw consists of a high, sharp summit rising near the center of a spectacular massif of the same name. Its summit crest stretching eight north-south continuous miles, and never dipping below 18,000 feet. Several sharp peaks rise from this crest and from its many ridges. The long eastern face of the massif presents a formidable icy wall. We would follow the trail that descends into the lush Amazonian cloud forest to Vitcos and continue north through sections of cloud forest into the lowland rainforest surrounding the ancient Inca Vilcabamba. This was our final destination, a ruin now covered in trees near Lucma located on a tributary that flows east into the Urubamba. We will be deep in the heart of the Vilcabamba mountain range, the trail passes through several types of Andean environments including cloud forest and alpine tundra and descends into the Amazon basin. Our final destination was Vilcabamba also known as Espiritu Pampa from Quechua: Willkapampa, "sacred plain". It was a final refuge founded by Manco Inca in 1539 and was the last refuge of the Inca Empire until it fell to the Spaniards in 1572, signaling the end of Inca resistance to Spanish rule. The city was then destroyed and lost, and it is the fabled “Lost city of the Incas”, a title frequently incorrectly applied to the more famous Machu Picchu. I journaled throughout the trip, and recalled the magnificent scenery and beauty of the peaks including the summit of Salcantay in the evening and morning light. There were two Andean herders tending their sheep grazing in the meadows. And there was difficulty in adjusting to the altitude at 13,100 feet (4000 meters), and we had another 2000 feet (700 meters) to climb over the pass. This became challenging as the second day all of the group was suffering from giardiasis, which was contracted days before, most likely from a small hacienda in Mollepata that served us a meal of papa fritos and fried alpaca meat with a salad. We all made the mistake of eating raw tomatoes. It was a violent combination of vomiting and diarrhea, disabling the first few days but then you got into a rhythm of its weekly attack. Treating it was futile, as all the cooks were carriers. I lost 5 kilos by the end of the trek. Our first night camp was also memorable with a powerful earthquake. Camped in the evening light of Nevado Salcantay and Humentay, the ground began to shake violently, setting off avalanches on the nearby icefields. This really scared our porters and muleteers as multiple aftershocks continued throughout our first night near the pass making them crawl into their sleeping bags with their tennis shoes on, ready to run. The trail led us through the pass of magnificent mountains surrounding us, then descended into a tropical cloud forest, mostly cleared by Quechua mountain people for growing potatoes. After several days we reached Yanama, a small village perched on a steep slope with a soccer field, and stone fenced pastures that contained grazing sheep. There was such great curiosity among the schoolchildren there, who had most likely never seen a foreigner. I remember in the chilly Andean night under a star sprayed sky and by a campfire, listening to the melancholy Andean songs accompanied by an out of tune guitar and charango, a mandolin type instrument made

with an armadillo backed sound board. Amazingly they knew of John Denver and asked me to play, which I did with my repertoire of four songs. We crossed Victoria Pass above Yanama and descended into the drier Apurimac River drainage to visit Choquequirao ruins. Not much had been excavated yet, but this was to become known later as the sister temple of Machu Pichu, with agricultural terraces and irrigation ditches. The Inca were brilliant in their hybridizing plants from rainforests outposts in the Amazon basin to higher altitudes through genetic selection. The Solanaceae family that includes tomatoes and potatoes were most likely hybridized from lower elevations to higher. On of the most beautiful views from the Vilcabamba was from Victoria Pass, overlooking to the northeast the Pumasiila massif of huge glaciated peaks rising steeply from the valley below of the Rio Santa Teresa River, a tributary of the Urubamba. Here unfortunately on the steep cliffs along a trail carved out of rock, the muleteer lost one of his pack animals, that slipped on the shale and fell several thousand feet to its death. It was sobering and needed to maintain caution returning to Yanama Village below. Choquetacarpo pass was also inspirational with its views of the surrounding peaks, and green lush valleys. In sections we ascended the stone stairways of part of an Incan Trail constructed millennia ago. The pass led down into the lush cloud forest, much of it cleared for pastures, to Vitcos. One theory holds that Pachacuti, who is recognized to have overseen the construction of Machu Picchu, also built Vitcos as a summer palace. Upon his death it became part of his estate but then re-used by Manco during his years in exile. The valley leading into the Espíritu Pampa led into the lowland rainforest. Here we found a remnant wall covered by the roots of large fig trees growing over it. The city was founded by Manco Inca in 1539 that served as the capital of the Neo-Inca State, the last refuge of the Inca Empire until it fell in 1572, signaling the end of Inca resistance to Spanish rule. The city was then destroyed, rediscovered by Hiram Bingham lll in 1911, and scholars believe it to be the fabled "Lost city of the Incas". Manco Inca had retreated from Ollantaytambo to Vitcos, and finally to Vilcabamba, and according to the historian Garcilaso De La Vega El Inca: "The Inca brought together all those of the royal blood he could find, men and women alike, and retired to the wild forest of the Antis to a place called Vilcapampa where he lived in exile and solitude as one can imagine a dispossessed and disinherited prince would live, until one day he was slain by a Spaniard whom he had sheltered and protected from enemies who had sought his death.” We had explored beautiful part of the Peruvian Andes that was both stunning and dramatic in its mountains and forests, but also tragic in its memory of a civilization destroyed by the Spanish. I reflected, and hoped we would learn from its history. As I write this in December of 2018, I looked at the changes to the Vilcambamba since 1980, 38 years ago. A road has been cut through Salcantay Pass to Santa Teresa and Yanama, and there are tourist lodges en route. I hope this brings not just more tourists, but some level of income for the poverty poor of the Quechua Mountain people. Some time soon, I hope to return.

Nevado Salcantay center, and Humentay, left, the beginning of the month trekking journey to Vilcabamba of Espiritu Pampa, the last stronghold of Manco Inca who resisted the Spanish conquistadors until 1572.

Sacsahuamen,Cusco, Ollantetambo; Below:Machu Pichu, Inca Ruin at the northern extension of Nevado Salcantay.

Map of route from Mollepata to Nevado Salkantay north then west to Yanama, over Victoria Pass to Choquequirao ruins south over the Apurimace River, back to Yanama and then traveled north over Chcquetecarpo pass to Vitcos, ending in Vilcabamba, or Espiritu Pampa where Manco Inca was finally defeated in 1572 by the Spanish invaders.

I held my first young alpaca, Cusco and surrounding ruins

Nevado Salcantay right, Humentay, left of photo before we were hit by a minor earthquake near camp

Nevado Salcantay in morning light 20,574 ft (6,271 m)

Top: Salcantay, hike to Salcantay Pass; Bottom: Salcantay Pass, descending pass to the Santa Teresa River

Near Rio Santa Teresa, rt. Torrent ducks, below: Santa Teresa River

Above: planting potatoes with a unique wood digger, village above Yanama

Village of Yanama

Victoria Pass above and below

Choquequirao (Southern Quechua: Chuqi K'iraw, Cradle of Gold) Inca Ruin above the Apurimac River

Choquequirao Inca Ruin, partly excavated, the sister temple area of Machu Pichu with agricultural terraces

Choquequirao

Victoria Pass coming from Choquequirao back to Yanama village below. Pumasilla mountains 19,655 ft. (5,991 m)

Victoria Pass and Pumasilla, Puma’s paw

Choquetacarpo Pass trail and peaks Above and Below

Choquetacarpo Pass and over 1000 year old Inca trail staircase made of Stone. The Inca had not invented the wheel, but instead transported goods and soldiers by foot, and lama. Below: small Quechua family, orchid

Unknown flowers of the Choquetacarpo Pass except far right, orchid: Masoevalllia veitchiana Victoria passaerial

Quebrda choquetacarpo

Vitcos choquipalta rock white rock of yurac ruins, church bells left from a fire, Neuva Vilcabamba

Panpaconas pass, girl with sheep, Cloud forest lower in the valley

Top: Vilcabamba also known as Espiritu Pampa. This area was hewn out of the forest by Manco Inca, who finally captured by the Pizzaro brothes, Spanish Conquistadors who plundered and murdered the Inca Royalty by the end of 1572. Left: I loved the classroom of the village of Yanama, deep into the mountains of the Vilcabamba in 1980. Today it is connected by road.