Land of the Inca

And it came to pass that I saw many multitudes of Gentiles upon the land of promise, and I saw that the wrath of God came upon the descendants of my brethren, and were scattered before the heathen, and afflicted.

1 Nephi 13:14.

Thursday, June 29, 2017, was a national holiday (St. Peter and St. Paul Day). This was, therefore, a holiday for the Area Office, but the following Friday was not. The government, showing some common sense about what happens when there is a Thursday holiday, strongly encouraged employers to make Friday, June 30, 2017, a “bridge” day (meaning a Friday holiday that bridges to a nice long weekend). The office eventually decided to go along with the idea. With two free days, we took off to the Sacred Valley, near Cusco - Inca country.

What’s so special about the Inca and the Sacred Valley?

In the early 1400s, the Incas, a small tribe in Cusco, were only one of many small warring tribes in area. These tribes routinely attacked and plundered each other.  In 1438, something with great historic significance happened, although it would not have been apparent at the time. The Chankas, the Incas' traditional and more powerful tribal archenemies, decided to attack and plunder the Incas. The battle was not going well for the Incas and their leader, Inca Viracocha, and Urco,  his son and the designated crown prince, fled for their lives. At this moment, another son, Pachacuti, seized the opportunity to take control and rally the troops and managed to severely defeat the Chankas. Legend has it that even the stones rose up to fight on Pachacuti's side. 

With this great victory Pachacuti became the ruler, the Inca. Under his leadership began one of the greatest and most rapid expansions that has ever been recorded. This expansion was often accomplished by war, but also through diplomacy, or what in the corporate takeover world would be known as the “bear hug” letter. The Incas would send another tribe some nice gifts and invite them to join and share in the greater, mutual prosperity. Then those who declined the invitation were invaded, their leaders executed, and many of their people banished to faraway lands as essentially slaves.

The Inca empire became huge. In little more than 50 years, Inca domination was extended across ancient Ecuador, Peru, northern Chile, Bolivia, upland Argentina, and southern Colombia, stretching 5,500 km (3,400 miles) north to south.  This is particularly impressive since the Incas themselves were numbered only between 15,000 and 40,000. But, impressively, they managed to rule over a population of around 10 million persons with 30 different languages.

The Inca, as a civilization, was unique in that it no written language. Nevertheless, using a system of knots, they were very good with math and accounting. They were also very able, if sometimes brutal, administrators and farmers. They never developed the use of wheeled vehicles, never figured out how to make the iron and steel necessary to make tools hard enough to cut rocks (their preferred building material), and they never used the arch in building. Nevertheless, the Incas were master builders and engineers, which now is their most admired attribute.

This holiday weekend we went to see some of the Inca building handiwork in what is known as the Scared Valley.

Cusco

Cusco is the entry to the world of the Incas. A few important points. It sits in a basin high in the Andes on the east side of the continental divide, the other side from Lima and the coast (meaning water here flows all the way to the Atlantic via the Amazon). That means that it is on the wetter, more fertile side of the Andes. It is also very high, with an elevation of 11,300 feet.

When Pachacuti became the Inca ruler and started his empire-building campaign, he first turned to upgrading his hometown Cusco, the center of the empire, with his signature imperial style buildings made from huge, but perfectly sized, rocks set without mortar. There are a number of Inca ruins in and around Cusco.

In Cusco you will still see buildings, such as the one above, built on Inca foundations and walls, because they were too difficult for the Spaniards to tear down and, unlike things later built by the Spaniards, these walls could survive earthquakes. 

North and over some mountains from Cusco is the beautiful, but narrow, east/west valley of the Urubamba River. There the elevations along the river range from 9,800 feet at the west end to 6,730 feet east end. This is lower than Cusco and, therefore, the valley has a warmer climate and more productive farmland, especially for maize production. It is, however, a narrow valley with limited flat acreage suitable for cultivation. This problem was solved by the Inca’s incredibly efficient terrace farming techniques. 

This valley also made for a pleasant place to live, away from the higher, colder Cusco, with its frenetic hub-of-the-empire activity. Accordingly, Pachacuti took his army over the mountains and into the valley where he first conquered the people living on the west end. To celebrate his conquest and to secure the valley, he built a large city called Pisac.

 He then went eastward, down the valley, and conquered another group and built a huge fortress and temple called Ollantaytambo. Lastly, at the far east end of the valley he built Machu Picchu (which you have all heard about), more or less as a “Camp David” style retreat for the governing Inca elite. (Actually, no one is really sure why it was built, but this seems to be the current theory).

The spectacular setting of Machu Picchu on the mountain peaks tends to mislead. At an elevation of around 7,900 feet it is actually 3,300 feet lower than Cusco and lower than Pisac. This valley is full of Inca ruins and farming terraces, some which are still in use, and is known as the Sacred Valley and that is where we were headed.

Pisac

While the Pisac ruins are high up on the mountainside, the town of Pisac is located down along the river. It is a small, old Spanish colonial town, built by the Spanish after they destroyed the original Inca village. This was our hotel, the Pisac Inn, located right in the center of the town off the town square. A catholic church is on the opposite side of the square (behind me when I took the photo).

The picture is a little deceiving, however, because it is usually much more crowded. Pisac is famous for a large market held each Thursday (the day we arrived) and Sunday. The market is set up in the square and is packed with stuff to buy, extending right up to the front door of our hotel.  And there are bus loads of tourists there to buy the stuff!  When we arrived, we could hardly get in and out of the hotel.  On the right is a restaurant named the Blue Llama, which is really pretty good.



The hotel is more in the "boutique" than luxury or business Marriott category. Actually, there was a lot about it that was inconvenient and uncomfortable, such as the bathroom, beds and internet, but otherwise I really liked the place. It was fun to be there.  In the Spanish tradition, the hotel rooms surround a courtyard (here covered, like a green house). This is the dining area in the courtyard just inside the hotel.



Evie standing just outside our room on the upper level looking down on the interior courtyard.

Later in July there is a festival in Pisac to celebrate La Virgen del Carmen. It is a big deal, some people plan trips to be here at that time. The festival starts, however, with its announcement a few weeks earlier with fireworks, singing and a marching band playing in the square (which as you'll note is in front of our hotel). The band also marches through the streets, including up and down the narrow rock and concrete street (think echos) just below the window of our hotel. This was all very culturally authentic, interesting, etc., except that this cultural surprise took place at 2:00 - 3:00 AM (yes two o'clock in the morning) right outside our window on the night after our hike up to the ruins - a marching band with trumpets, tubas, trombones, clarinets and, of course, lots of drums. I really wish I had gotten up and taken some pictures and some videos to share this remarkable event, but sadly I did not.

A picture of some friends we made hanging around the market in Pisac

The usual way to see the Inca ruins at Pisac is to take a tour bus from Cusco and up the road to the top of the ruins.  Then after spending an hour or two on the ruins in the morning, heading on down to tours other ruins in the valley. Another way, is to take a taxi from Pisac up to the ruins and hike down the mountain through the ruins to the village of Pisac, and the third, more adventuresome (or brainless and exhausting), alternative is to hike up a trail from the town and back down. We choose the brainless alternative. This is Evie at the trail head.

Evie on the trail. Note the Inca terracing. The Pisac ruins are large and spread out over both sides of a high ridge. Keep in mind those terraces, many which are still used today, are 500-600 years old.

Evie taking a rest along the way with a new friend.

This eight year old girl was one of our hiking companions up the trail. Since it was a holiday, there was no school. So her family sent her up the mountain with a big bag of handmade (by her family) purses, toys and other things to lay out on the ground to sell to folks like us. There was also a couple of boys on a similar mission and who had something of a monopoly on selling bottled water to hikers at rest stops on the trail. (And yes we bought some stuff from all of them).

There were some other trail companions of whom we never got around to taking pictures, but with whom we shared much of the hike. One was a young man (mid 20s) from Pisac who worked as a guide at Machu Picchu. But this was a day off and for recreation he liked to walk up and sit among the Pisac ruins, in his words "reconnect" with nature and his Inca heritage and play his flute. Quechua is his first language, Spanish his second, and he was working on the English for his tours.  I enjoyed talking with him. He felt deeply about nature, spiritual matters and his ancestry.

I regret that I was did not (and frankly with my Spanish  was unable) to suggest to him that his ancient ancestry and culture is much different and more magnificent than he now could possibly imagine. In any event, he was going to Cusco that afternoon and, if he runs across a pair of missionaries there (I explained to him how to spot them), he will likely stop and ask them if they know this really odd gringo couple with bad Spanish named Hyer.

On the way down, we met a young woman from Ohio. She had just graduated from Stanford with a computer science major and minor in Iberian literature studies and was on a trip to see South America before starting a job in Boston. I'm sure she was aware of Mormons, but not so sure how comfortable she was with us as Mormon missionaries (tags and all). She made a deliberate point never to ask about the Church and let pass without comment my explanation on why we were in Peru. However, she was alone and walking down a somewhat precarious trail and she had the common sense to know it would be best to walk down with some one else. She asked if she could be walk down with us. We enjoyed our conversation with her down the mountain, learning about her family, our common thoughts about Ohio and northern California, her plans and her new job. She also gave us some helpful tips on using the "collectivo" back to Cusco. I hope things work out well for her.

The Pisac Ruins

Some pictures of us among the ruins. (Unfortunately, you can't help but notice, although I wish you would not, that I have very much enjoyed the great food in Peru).

These photos require some explanations. On the top of the peak behind Evie is the Temple of the Sun, one of the most important set of ruins at Pisac. When we came to the trail up to those ruins Evie instead decided to take the little foot bridge because there were some interesting flowers underneath the bridge.  That put us on this side of the canyon with this nice view of the Temple of the Sun. It was also something of moment reckoning. Instead of walking back and up to the Temple of the Sun with everyone else, we turned around and walked up this trail (picture below) with no one on it and up this pretty little canyon.

We walked up to this point, took a rest and a picture, and then went back to Pisac (without ever going to the Temple of the Sun). Although Evie and I never would admit until then, the motivation to come to Pisac and the Sacred Valley was never to see ancient Inca ruins, but to get out of the very busy, frenetic city of Lima, to walk around on dirt (not concrete) in beautiful mountains, just like we did in Park City, Utah. We love our mission and Lima, but there days when I miss very much walking around on dirt trails in the mountains.

Francisco Pizarro González

The fact that these are ruins, suggests that, notwithstanding their great empire, it did not end well for the Incas.

An Inca king died, probably from small pox coming down from Central America ahead of the Spanish conquistadors, which lead to a disagreement between two sons, Atahualpa and Huascar, over who should be the new Inca, which resulted in a civil war. Atahualpa won.  Resting in Cajamorca from his great victory over his brother, Atahualpa learned of some strange breaded men, lead by Francisco Pizarro, with horses who had arrived by sea. Atahualpa's first thoughts were to have them killed, except one or two who could be used to manage his harem. He was most interested in the horses, which were strange, unfamiliar creatures. But as he correctly concluded, the horses would be useful and they could breed more of them.



Atahualpa could have easily had Pizarro and his men killed at that time. However, the Inca was also distracted by issues from the civil war and somewhat curious about these men. Therefore, he did not immediately kill them, but allowed them to visit -- one of history's biggest mistakes. Pizarro and his conquistadors were not particularly admirable people. They were greedy, deceitful, arrogant and brutal men, but unquestionably brave and clever. In short, in one of history's most improbable victories, Pizarro with 110 foot soldiers and 67 cavalry, managed to capture Atahualpa (and ransom him for gold and then execute him), defeat an experienced Inca army of some 50,000 and capture an entire empire.





Many historians argue that Pizarro's victory over the Incas was the inevitable result of the European advantages of horses, steel and guns. I'm less sure about that. There were so many events that could have easily gone the other way, leaving the Spaniards dead and the Incas (who were not idiots) to seize and learn from the Spanish horses and weapons (as did the Plains Indians in the US). No, the Spaniards were very lucky and, of course, had a role to play in fulfillment of prophecy. God works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.