Turn Right at MacHu Picchu 12-Copy Floor Display - Mark Adams [135]
Fred and Aura Truslow housed and fed me at their homes in both Washington, D.C., and Lima. The extended Kahatt-Navarrete family—Hilda, Julia, Karim, Sharif and Marta—made me feel welcome during Lima’s gloomiest season. (Rocio Lockett and Patrick Manning deserve honorable sunshine mentions.) Nati Huamani put up with my silly inquiries while she cooked dinner for my sons. In Ollantaytambo, Vince and Nancy Lee not only answered my questions but bought me a very nice dinner on their anniversary. Others who provided personal or professional kindnesses big and small included Roberto Samanez, Johan Reinhard, Roxana Abril, Eliane Karp-Toledo, Barry Walker, Alex Chepstow-Lusty, Tati von Kaupp, Robert von Kaupp, Peter Frost, Rosa Cobos, Paul Cripps and the staff of Amazonas Explorer, and the very nice people who run the Hostal San Isidro Labrador, Carlo and Estela in particular. Also, an emphatic mil gracias to those who made sure I never lost my way (or my appetite) on the trail: Efrain Valles, Edgar Gudiel, Mateo Gallegos, Julián Bolaños, Juvenal Cobos and Justo Suchli.
My agent, Daniel Greenberg, reworked a half-baked book idea about Machu Picchu into something that people might actually want to read. Brian Tart at Dutton books seemed to understand immediately what I had in mind, probably even better than I did. He and Jessica Horvath helped steer an often wayward narrative back toward the proper path. David Cain drew the beautiful maps, based in part on earlier maps drawn by Bingham, the INC, Kenneth Wright, Peter Frost, Johan Reinhard and John Gilkes.
My greatest debt in all things is to my wife, Aurita, without whom this book could not have been written for about a thousand different reasons. And to my three beloved sons, who have never lied, cheated or betrayed the least sign of laziness—Alex, Lucas and Magnus—I can offer only one hard-earned nugget of wisdom in return for the joy you bring me every day: when hiking downhill, always wear two pairs of socks.
Glossary
These brief descriptions may be useful when you’re trying to remember the difference between Huayna Capac (an emperor), Huayna Picchu (the peak at the north end of Machu Picchu) and Huayna Pucará (an Inca fort). For the most difficult names—almost all of them Quechua—I’ve included an approximate pronunciation as well.
Almagro, Diego de: One of Francisco Pizarro’s two original partners in a business syndicate formed to exploit the riches many Spaniards believed (correctly) to exist in Peru. Embittered by his small share of Inca plunder, Almagro later started a war against the Pizarros, lost, and was executed.
Antisuyu: (An-tee-SOO-yoo) The easternmost and most tropical of the four quarters of the Inca empire. Its lands encompassed Machu Picchu and part of the Amazon basin.
Apu: (Ah-POO) A holy mountain, in traditional Andean belief. Often the recipient of religious sacrifices and ceremonies.
Apurimac River: (Ah-POO-ree-mack) Whitewater river that flows below Choquequirao.
Atahualpa: (Ah-tah-WAHL-pah) Inca emperor at the time of Pizarro’s conquest of Peru. He had recently defeated his half brother Huascar in a civil war that devastated the empire; his preoccupation with this victory may have led him to underestimate Pizarro’s threat. When captured by the Spaniards, Atahualpa paid an enormous ransom for his freedom, but was assassinated.
Ausangate: (Ow-san-GAH-tay) An apu that overlooks the Incas’ holy city and capital of Cusco. One of the two most sacred mountains in Inca cosmology, along with Salcantay.