Weekly Travel Theme: Mountain

February 17, 2013 by A tale or two to tell..... | 8 Comments

” We are Inca, children of the sun….. our father the sun, our lord the sun.…. “

This is a line in a song I was taught as young girl at primary school in Sydney Australia.

We performed it as part of the combined schools choir at the Sydney Opera House. I remember how exciting it was listening to hundreds of voices singing that line, chanting it over and over, getting louder and louder as it echoed off the walls of the concert hall and built in momentum. It sent chills down your spine.

At the time, Inca to me were some mythical magical creatures, not a real lost civilisation to be found in South America.

Many years later I set off to find this lost civilisation, trekking the famous Camino Inka, to the City of the lost Incas.

This is a place that is mountain after mountain after mountain, and I was climbing them, one after the other after the other.

One mountain was very appropriately named ” Dead Woman’s Pass“, found at a cool (literally) 4,200 metres above sea level. This is the summit reached on day 2 of the trek. It is imposing as all hell, it’s steep, the air is thin, and to get there you literally shuffle up that mountain, stopping constantly for “air” or to catch your breath.

It really was breathtaking on more than one level, as the scenery changed from rainforest, to cloud forest to alpine. Stunning natural beauty.

I am having some serious flashbacks to that time. It was an extraordinary experience !

* Sorry for the dodgy photos taken with the best “point and shoot” camera in those days

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