Finding Mystique in the Land of the Incas – Cusco to Machu Picchu
The monthly meeting of the Los Serranos Group of the Sierra Club is Tuesday, November 15, at 7:00 PM. Ann and Farley Olander, long time Sierra Club members, will share their recent trip to Peru. Meeting is held upstairs in the First Presbyterian Church Education building, 869 N. Euclid Ave, Upland, take the left side stairs. New members and the public are welcome.
Come take a peek at the enchanted world of the Incas. The Olanders plunged into that world for a fast-paced week, traveling on their own. During four of those days, they hired personal guides familiar with the Quechua language and their Inca roots. The guides took them along back routes to learn about Inca ruins, their people and beliefs. Plus they interspersed stories from their own heritage.
One guide led them all day, often cross-country – hiking above the 12,342-foot village, Chinchero for better views of 18,000 to 20,000-foot mountains, but also to sacred Inca sites nearby and to remote scenes of local farmers harvesting potatoes in the high plateau – and on to Moray with its concentric terraces, spiraling 500 feet into the ground and to the pre-Inca salt pans of Moras.
These sights added to those from Pisac's market and its Inca ruins, the fortress/temple remains of Sacsayhuaman and Ollantaytambo plus the wonders at Machu Picchu. Hiking several days above Machu Picchu on steep, centuries-old Inca trails of stone both exhilarated and humbled the two Olanders.
