Peru has announced plans to build a cable car to the historic ruins of Machu Picchu. This development comes as tourism to this area of South America increases. What's the future of this ancient city?

Machu Picchu. Inca Trail. The words caused images of snowcapped peaks, steep terraced valleys, massive stoneworks, and jungle cloud forests to flash though my mind. "Of course, I'll go," was the response to my sister's invitation. She had asked me to trek a 30-mile piece of the ancient Incan royal highway connecting Cusco to Machu Picchu, the mysterious Incan city made known to the world only in 1911.

Recently I had read news of the controversy surrounding the Peruvian government's plans to build a high-tech cable car up to Machu Picchu in order to quadruple the numbers of tourists and foreign revenues. I wanted to get there before the cable car.

Three weeks later, I was on the plane to Cusco, Peru, equipped with new hiking boots, altitude pills, and guidebooks. Flying from Lima at sea level to Cusco (11,000 feet), I could only imagine the full extent of the Incan Empire.

At the height of its power in 1530, the Incan empire stretched more than 3,000 miles down the coast of South America from Ecuador to Argentina. The territory was twice the size of Spain, equal to Texas and New Mexico combined, but much of the area stands at over 9,843 feet above sea level with snow peaks higher than 20,000 feet.

Despite the rugged terrain, the Incan rulers built a network of over 15,000 miles of roads, bridges, and tunnels. This system allowed armies, officials, goods, and communications to travel quickly.

When the Spanish conquistadors arrived, they took over many of the roads along the coast and in the valleys. Some of these roads are the automobile routes of today.

The highland trails, however, were abandoned. The steep stone-slab staircases, zigzagging up and down the sides of mountains, were too treacherous for the carts and horses used by the Spaniards. These trails, originally designed as footpaths for people and llamas, temporarily disappeared because of disuse and jungle growth.

The Inca Trail, also known as the "royal highway," was a highland route going up from the Urubamba River valley not far from the Incan capital of Cusco. The trail connected a series of settlements on the way to the ceremonial city of Machu Picchu. The Spaniards never discovered the trail. Although local people living in the valley probably knew about the trail, and smugglers used sections of it, the public learned about the trail only in 1915, when Hiram Bingham, the American who found Machu Picchu in 1911, returned to the site to clear the ruins.

Since then the numbers of archaeologists, scientists, backpackers, and tourists retracing the steps of the early Incas have increased exponentially from 7,000 per year in the early 1980s to an estimated 120,000 in 1999.

Today, hiking the Inca trail is vastly easier than in the days of Hiram Bingham. Anyone in reasonable condition can do it in three or four days. My sister and I chose to join a group for convenience. The tour company and guide not only organized the reservations of campsites for three nights but also arranged for porters to carry tents and food. A cook prepared the meals.

Initially going with a small group seemed like a good plan because there was safety in numbers. However, at the last minute the tour company put our group of 10 together with another group of 11 because they could not find a second guide. No Peruvian soccer fan wanted to miss the Peru-Argentina soccer match that afternoon.

The resulting size of our group—21 people plus one guide, one cook, and seven porters—turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg of a much greater trail management issue. Multiply 30 by the five other large groups that I saw starting out the first day and you have a large concentration of people.

The impact was especially evident when we stopped for lunch and had to wait in line for a space to sit down in a crowded field littered with plastic wrappers and surrounded by begging children. At night the overflowing campsites turned into "tent cities" with inadequate sanitation facilities.

I realized that we were unwitting contributors to a growing problem. However, at the beginning of the hike, I had other concerns:

My doctor had warned me that 75% of people at elevations of over 10,000 feet develop symptoms of altitude sickness. Increased breathlessness, headache, fatigue, and nausea are common. At 15,000 feet, the pressure of oxygen in your blood is only about half that at sea level and can cause fluid build-up in the lungs and brain. The symptoms, if unheeded, can progress quickly to life-threatening illnesses. How would I react to the high altitude?

I was much relieved at the end of the first day of the hike to experience only the blisters. On the second day after surviving the dizzying thin air of Dead Woman's Pass, I truly began to relax and enjoy the spectacular beauty and variety of the different phenomena we were witnessing at every step and turn of the trail. There were even moments of walking along the trail in solitude.

Viewing an Ancient World

Day 1
The views, weather, and surrounding habitats changed continuously as we ascended or descended.

Starting out in burning hot sun at 7,200 feet on the arid valley floor, I would not have guessed that by the end of Day 1, I would be shivering in my tent. We had progressed upward from cactus through a valley of lush farmland and pasture to the sparse vegetation of high-altitude grasslands at over 10,000 feet.

Day 2
By the time we reached Warmiwañusca on Day 2 (13,800 feet), a misty rain had turned to sleet and snow. No picture postcard views of mountain ranges greeted us, nor did we see the valley from which we had just ascended...only fog.

Day 3
At the second high pass near the ruins of Runkuracay, we began to descend to the rich jungle-like growth of the montane cloud forest. With the mists and warm air rising from the Amazon lowlands, the landscape became a mass of dense moist vines, bromeliads, ferns, and orchids.

Unexpectedly, I found myself drawn to the tiny mosses that made up a soft carpet of thousands of variations of reds, pinks, browns, and greens on the embanked side of the trail. I realized where the Incans got their creative color palette for weaving and design.

By the end of the day, we had passed more than six different restored ruins with names in Quechua (Andean indigenous language) like Pattallaqta (Terrace town), Runkuracay, Sayacmarca, Phuyupatamarca (Cloud town), and Wiñay Wayna. I marveled at the splendid stone masonry, the lookout points from fortresses on high cliffs, the astronomical observatories, the ingenious aqueducts and irrigation systems, and the agricultural terracing along impossibly steep mountainsides.

Day 4
The fourth and last day we arrived at dawn at Intipunku (the Sun Gate). This is the traditional threshold to Machu Picchu and a prime photo-taking spot, the one you see on all the guidebooks to Peru or South America. But on this particular morning there was no sun. Machu Picchu was not even visible.

We waited and after about 45 minutes, a small piece of the ancient stone citadel emerged through the fog. The sight was every bit as awe-inspiring as I had imagined, but I was also sorry the hike had ended.

The chart below covers the distances and altitudes we covered. Based on the information provided, answer the questions that follow:

• On which day did we cover the shortest distance? On which did we cover the longest? What would explain the difference?

• What was our average speed in miles per hour on each of the four days we hiked? (You can find the total amount of hours we hiked per day in the brackets at the bottom of the chart.)

• What was our average speed in miles per hour for the entire four-day trip?

Looking to the Future
I would like to return to the Inca Trail someday to savor the views of the Vilcabamba mountain range that I missed the first time around. However, I worry about the impact of increased tourism on the Trail. According to the New York Times, Cusco has become South America's major tourist destination. In the last five years the number of tourists has doubled to 283,000 per year.

Moreover, the Peruvian government's plans to build a high-tech cable car up the side of Machu Picchu will only accelerate the flow of tourists to the area. The International Council on Monuments and Sites has estimated that the cable car would increase the numbers of tourists to Cusco and Machu Picchu from the approximately 300,000 per year to 1.5 million.

An explosion in tourism would severely affect this ancient site, say environmental advocates. Along with the planned cable car terminal, there are proposals to add restaurants, stores, and even a new hotel complex, all of which could interfere with the historical and sacred significance of Machu Picchu.

The likely increase in traffic along the Inca Trail would bring with it a huge increase in trash. Even the added toilets erected along the way would clash with the natural surroundings. And the more people walking the trail, the greater the threat to the fragile vegetation, including many species of orchids.

Next month, the government will initiate new trail laws which for the first time limit the number of people on the trail to 500 per day. At present they can swell to over 1,000 daily during the peak season. In addition, the trail fee will also increase from $17 to $50, with students at half-price. But authorities say this is "not even enough to pick up the trash or clean the bathrooms."

Some nonprofit groups are initiating clean-ups of the trail. In the early 1980s the South American Explorers Club led the way with " Operation OVERBITE (Our Very Energetic Resolve to Beautify the Trail Environs). Volunteers collected 400 kilos (882 lbs) of garbage along the trail. Tom Johnson, then the manager of the SAEC Lima office made this comparison: "That's about 16,000 tuna fish cans, which stacked on top of each other would reach a height of 1,400 meters (almost a mile)."

If I return to hike the trail, I will be required by law to join an organized group. According to the new trail regulations, hikers will have to go through either a government-approved tour operator or contract a licensed guide.

To better understand the conflicting views over the Inca Trail, look at the following articles:

BBC News: "Inca Trail Restricted"

The Christian Science Monitor: "Cable Cars Invade Inca 'Lost City'"

Machu Picchu in Danger: "The End of a Legend?"

Identify the pros and cons of adding cable cars and increasing tourism.

Learn More

• The Biology Explorer activity, Acclimatization, investigates the effects of high altitudes on the respiratory system.

• The Brazilian Pantanal in South America also faces threats from development and tourism. Read the Riverdeep article, "Saving a Part of Brazil."

• The highest mountain on Earth has a serious litter problem. Read the Riverdeep article, "Conquering Mt. Everest—and Trash."

• Closer to home, America's national parks face increasing damage from air pollution. Check out the Riverdeep article, "Our National Parks: Polluted Classrooms."

More Links

• Explore the Ruins on the Inca Trail.
  
  

• Get a detailed description and excellent photographs of hiking the Inca Trail.
  
  

• See how times have changed. Read this travel report from 1978.
  
  

Related Resources

• Get The Inca Trail : Cuzco & Machu Picchu.

• Get Peter Frost's, Exploring Cusco, available from the South American Explorer's Club.

Meg Little Warren, who wrote this article, contributes periodically to Riverdeep.