Machu Picchu City Trek - What really happened to the Incas?

Our group is probably physically capable of re-tracing Hiram Bingham's 5-day hike along the Urubamba River valley to the Machu Picchu sun temple entrance. But we decided to shorten the route to the one-day hike up the mountain, through ancient terraced cities and temples, and to the Sun Gate. That's where you get the payoff selfie photo you see all the time with the city in the background.

There is nothing technical about the hike, but it's relentlessly uphill. 

Okay - so, Altitude

By the time you've spent some time in the Sacred Valley, you are relatively well acclimated. Cusco is 11,000 feet, and you crest the Andes at 12,300 feet on your way to Urubamba at 9,500 feet, so you are actually descending out of the valley as you head to Machu Picchu. But make no mistake - the air is thin. The walk is steep. The sun is hot. I don't see someone landing in Cusco from the U.S. and making this trek on the same day. There is some logic in simply acclimating with small tourist tours in the days before you go to Machu Picchu, the tip of which is only 10,000 feet. 

The Payoff Selfie!

What Happened to the Inca?

As my guide, Fredy, would tell you - no one knows why the Inca suddenly disappeared. There is little knowledge of their culture, except for what anthropologists can deduct. Why was such an evolved culture unable to repel the Spaniards? Everything everyone talks about is conjecture. There was no written language, and the conquistadors did everything they could to erase the culture. So we are left to guess and marvel at what they accomplished. But for all their advancement, the Inca evolved more slowly than the European or Asian cultures of the same vintage. Primitive weaponry, but extremely evolved architecture for a primitive culture. 

Do you remember Kontiki? That was the Peruvians, who settled the Polynesian islands, sailing there from Lima in a balsa wood ship. Crazy.