Machu Picchu: Consecration or Desecration
by Carol Cumes

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After each visit to Machu Picchu, I indulged myself with an extended stay on the Lizˆrraga farm. At night I would lie in bed and gaze up through the window at the silhouette of Machu Picchu Peak towering over a sheer granite cliff, a view not seen from the ruins. Apu Machu Picchu became for me a blossoming presence. It took on life and I found myself communing with it, talking about my projects and asking for guidance and advice. The local village was called Intiwatana, named for a large "hitching post to the sun" found near the base of the mountain. Opposite Machu Picchu, campesinos pointed out other intiwatanakuna on surrounding mountain tops, all appearing to have some relationship to each other. I believe they were constructed within a special vortex of energy, which one could feel while meditating at the farm below. It was interesting to note that, precisely at the base of this vortex, the government built a large hydroelectric station responsible for all the electrical power used in Cusco and other parts of the country. R„mulo's mother would invite our Magical Journey groups to spend a few days at her farm. It made the perfect resting place for our Wilderness groups that had hiked and ridden on horseback from the sacred mountain Salkkantay.

Amidst the most spectacular scenery imaginable, we would cross two 16,000-foot passes on trails that took us around the glaciers of Salkkantay. On the last day, we would hike down the flower-filled Aobamba valley into the sub-tropical vegetation of Machu Picchu, arriving at the entrance to the Lizˆrraga farm. Visitors would delight in using the oroya to cross the river, eating campesino food, and hiking along trails to study the medicinal plants. We would chat with the locals, many of whom were descendants of the Quechua who had farmed there at the turn of the century, already working the terraces of Machu Picchu before Hiram Bingham first claimed to "discover" the ruins. I "chatted" to Apu Machu Picchu about my enthusiasm to establish a garden of medicinal flowers where visitors could observe Andean plants growing in their native habitat. Señora Lizˆrraga offered me a piece of her land, and tempting as it was, I had a strong sense that something was not right and it would be wiser to settle in the Sacred Valley.

In February 1995, the first of natural disasters began in the area around Machu Picchu. Late one night a huge landslide destroyed the entire hot springs complex at Aguas Calientes, just missing the village below. In December that year, our group left Aguas Calientes by bus for Machu Picchu. I stayed back with my son, Paul, who had a rash and needed to get medication. As we headed for the next bus, we were told that a huge boulder next to Machu Picchu Ruinas Hotel had dislodged, and within moments had become a plunging rockslide that swept through the zigzag roads leading to the station below. The bus with our group had just made it safely to the top. Paul and I, with the other tourists, had to hike 45 minutes on a steep trail up the mountain. As we climbed a distance from the slide, more and more boulders bounced off the mountain top. It was three months before the roads were repaired. Five months later, a large chunk of glacier ice dislodged itself from Salkkantay, producing an avalanche of giant proportions. The avalanche gathered mud and stones as it thundered down the same valley we would travel from Salkkantay to get to the Lizˆrraga farm. That night, lying in bed at another small farm up the valley, R„mulo's brother-in-law, Eliseo, suddenly heard what sounded like rolling thunder. He yelled to his wife, Clothilda, to run with him up the sheer mountain cliff, and they escaped just in time to watch their home and animals being carried away in the dark. Wearing only thin clothing, they spent the cold Andean night clinging to brush until morning light when they could make their way to safety. A neighboring family with three small children disappeared in the mud, never to be found.

Normally a two-day walk, it took the avalanche just a few hours to cover the distance from Salkkantay to the Urubamba below. It destroyed everything in its path, and the force of the boulders smacking into the river changed its course, submerging hectares of land that the Lizˆrraga family had farmed for a century.

Fires raged in the area around Machu Picchu in October 1997, scorching thousands of hectares. At first, the fire was not taken seriously, and emergency crews were brought in only when it began approaching the ruins at Machu Picchu. Flames surrounded the entire ancient city and turned the emerald green mountains into black desolation. The path up to Waynapicchu was closed, and authorities quickly planted hardy bushes to stabilize the mountain cliffs before the start of rainy season. Soon after, my partner Mark and I were appalled by news that the government planned to build a roadway and dam for the hydroelectric plant up the unstable valley where the mudslide had occurred. We watched tractors and bulldozers strip away the remaining green vegetation. Gone were the orchids, hydrangeas, begonias and impatiens that grew on the banks of the river. Our senses were assaulted with rubble and dust, and the energy of the area felt heavy and unsafe. We had received sufficient warnings from Salkkantay, and sadly I knew it would be the last time I would bring visitors to Intiwatana and the farm below Machu Picchu Peak.

In February 1998, another huge section of glacier from Salkkantay, melting in the unseasonably warm weather caused by El Niño, had separated from the mountain. This created another avalanche ten times greater than the first, which traveled down the same valley. R„mulo's daughter Indira, his niece, and brother Lucho were visiting the farm, and R„mulo didn't know if they were safe. Señora Lizˆrraga and her daughter-in-law, Joni, had gone to sell fruit at the Intiwatana station and had crossed the river on the oroya only minutes before disaster struck. They had to climb well above the station to escape the rising water. No one knew the fate of those who had remained on the farm.

Lucho was harvesting coffee beans when he looked up and saw a cloud of smoke cannonballing down the valley. He knew something was very wrong and ran back to the house to call the girls, who were playing indoors. Together with his brother-in-law and another worker, Jose, they fled the house and climbed the steep mountain slopes. Within a few minutes there was an explosion and the entire farm shook powerfully, as if caught in an earthquake. The avalanche of boulders and mud dammed up the roaring Urubamba river, churning back and causing the waters to rise almost 100 meters. Three tidal waves of mud rose up and enveloped the farm, burying 150 hectares of land and destroying two double-story homes along with the furnished guest houses used for Magical Journey groups. The waves of mud reversed direction, driving upstream toward the hydroelectric plant and destroying it along with hundreds of buildings and houses in the complex. The foraging river waters rushing from Machu Picchu crashed into the turbulent water trapped below and forced a rupture in the dam wall.

The local train from the jungle, filled to capacity with travelers to Qosqo, was just minutes away from Intiwatana station. As the driver turned the bend a flying boulder crashed into the front of the train and he saw the avalanche hit the river ahead. He stopped the train and hundreds of passengers scrambled up the mountainside seconds before the water burst out from the dam. The flood continued on its devastating course to the jungle, destroying the train, railway line, towns, and farms, taking with it the livelihood of thousands of farmers and severing their lifeline to the outside world. The loss of agriculture and the hydroelectric plant will affect all of Peru for years to come.

Miraculously, Lucho, the girls, and the two men escaped by climbing to the top of the mountain, but it was three days before rescuers were able to cross the river to bring them to safety. Meanwhile after escaping the devastating landslide which buried Intiwatana train station under eightymeters of mud and stone on the other side of the river, Señora Lizˆrraga and her daughter-in-law sat huddled together at the upper railway switchback, waiting for a train from Qosqo, to take survivors from the area. Señora Lizˆrraga did not believe that any of the family on the farm could have survived the destruction. Her two young granddaughters had come to celebrate their grandmother's eighty-ninth birthday, and she had left them playing inside the house when she crossed the river to sell bananas at the station. She had played out this ritual every day of her life, and from the few soles earned each day had saved enough money to send all her children to Qosqo to be educated. Proudly, she always would proclaim that her seven sons went to university and obtained degrees. During almost nine decades, she had hardly missed a day selling fruit, tending to her coffee beans and chickens, and cooking for the farm workers. In disbelief and shock, she watched her life's work disappear under waves of churning mud and tons of debris. She saw her land become a lake and her neighbors' farms vanish along with the homes of all her elderly friends living along the railway lines.

Soon after the tragedy, Señora Lizˆrraga, now living with her children in Qosqo, came to visit me. It cheered her up to see how many of her Machu Picchu plants were now thriving in our gardens at Willka T'ika. Wistfully, she said she would like to go back and farm at Machu Picchu one day. I asked her for her thoughts on this tragedy that has taken away everything she has worked for during this century. "People must understand that all of Machu Picchu, the Intiwatana, and the hydroelectric plant are protected by the apukuna, the powerful mountain deities. The apukuna have become angry because they were insulted by the locals and skeptical foreigners. Many people want to climb to the snowy mountains such as Salkkantay, Huamantay, and Palkkay without asking permission from the apukuna or the Kamak, creator of man. These gods have been offended by those who fail to acknowledge them and do not send their offerings.

"There are people who wish to develop the area, and they do not understand that, since ancient times, this land has been preserved as sacred. It was to be left only for the wise ones whose spirits control the region. The guardian spirits do not want roadways or industry, or people who pollute the land from Chillka (the start of the Inka trail) to Aobamba (the valley behind Machu Picchu). These are sacred areas. It was there the deities had built the ancient city of Machu Picchu. The caves you visited where you saw remains of the gentiles, the ancient beings, belong to the guardians of the valley of Aobamba. Close to the caves, teams of workers began tearing up the land to build a road. Engineers drew plans that would require hauling in building materials. They were going to lay giant tubes to erect an even larger hydroelectric dam in the heart of this sacred land.

Authorities ignored the first landslide, which came down as a warning from Salkkantay over a year ago. The engineers who planned this construction were unaware of the caves and failed to respect the spiritual beliefs of the ancient ones, the naupa machukuna." According to the belief system of the Quechua, Pachamama has sent warning after warning to the people of Machu Picchu. Salkkantay, the most powerful of all mountain deities, has spoken yet again, this time with a vengeance that cannot be ignored. Our stories gathered from these people will live on, but many of the places I wrote about exist no more. We must ask ourselves if this is an example of the enormous price to be paid for not respecting Pachamama, our Mother Earth. Most tourists visiting the ruins at Machu Picchu still remain unaware of, and unaffected by, this tragedy that has taken place on the other side of the mountain.

Carol Cumes lives and works in Willka T'ika, a Retreat Center in Peru's Sacred Valley, between Cusco and Machu Picchu. Her book Journey to Machu Picchu focus on the traditions and beliefs of the Andean people. Carol also leads and organizes specialized tours to the Andes and Amazon. For more information on Carol's books and "Magical Journey" tours, visit http://www.travelperu.com, email info@travelperu.com or phone Terry Cumes at (888) PERU-070.

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