We scampered off to Peru late last month on a trip to the Sacred Valley in order to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Such a wonderful place. It was as if we stepped back in time to a place where the sun, the moon, the stars, and mother earth and all her creatures were still revered. The high mountain flowers were beautiful and bright, even if their size was slight. A tough life they live at such high elevations. We experienced various conditions, as well. It seems we experienced every season each day: with wind and rain, warmth and coolness, and sun and clouds abounding all around.
Yet, throughout our journey, we walked the ancient trails of a people who so appreciated it all. The Inca were masters of stonework and building. They were hydraulic engineers who could supply and move water everywhere and anywhere, many of the sites we visited have running water today because of that history. Thriving by being master farmers, elaborately terracing mountainsides, and looking to the skies for signs of change, their astrological sense was fine and told them when to plant and when to wait.
It was amazing to hear the tales of the Inca and even more so to feel it sink in as I hiked so long every day. I began to realize the extent of their reach--how all they built was interconnected, not only with the land, but the villages. Everything they built aligned with the stars: an empire reaching from Colombia and Ecuador to Chile and Argentina, some 1600 miles. Stretching along the spine of the Andes Mountains all the way. A land of dramatic heights and steep valleys, cloud forests, and alpine meadows climates so very wet and some so very dry. I read before I left that all 8 major climate types in the entire world are represented in Peru.
We spent nights at 12,000 feet above sea level looking up to the stars. Seeing the Milky Way on display, it was easy to see how the Inca connected the Milky Way and the mountains. The stars seemed to just spill into the peaks. I hope this gives you a sense of the native peoples of Peru. They were very much like our native peoples who revered the land and mother earth, knowing that we are all one with all that is and revering that connection.
God blesses you and yours this day and every day,
Keith Noyes
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