Aric S. Queen was on a quest to be the first person at the ancient Inca city of  Machu Picchu, Peru, on January first. However, that involves some high-altitude walking uphill first thing in the morning, and he despaired as other hikers passed him by. But at the gate, serendipity gave Queen the opportunity to go first.

Ten-plus years of travel, forty-plus countries, countless marvels, but this is the only place I cried at seeing.

One photo was snapped from my phone — those four seconds were the maximum amount of time I wanted to take my eyes off of it.

For 30 seconds, I sat in silence – not even realizing what I had just done.

It took the sound of footsteps behind me to bring everything back to the present. And it took the sounds of voices to realize that when I had first gotten up – there were none.

An estimated 1.2 million people this year, and I was visitor no. 0,000,000,001.

Read Queen’s story and see a video of the adventure at Intelligent Travel magazine. Link -Thanks, Marilyn Terrell!

(Image credit: Aric S. Queen)

Known as keshwa chaca, this is the only remaining example of the Incan handwoven bridges once common in the Incan road system. Made of woven grass, the bridge spans 118 feet and hangs 220 feet above the canyon’s rushing river.

The Incan women braided small, thin ropes, which were then braided again by the men into large support cables, much like a modern steel suspension bridge. Handwoven bridges lasted as long as 500 years and were held in very high regard by the Inca. The punishment for tampering with such a bridge was death.

Over time, however, the bridges decayed, or were removed, leaving this single testament to Incan engineering. This previously sagging bridge was repaired in 2003, christened with a traditional Incan ceremonial bridge blessing, and is now in extremely good condition.

Link (Image: Dylan Thuras)

Helene says that the ample selection of hair colors and textures in South America — the result of more than twenty-five generations of intermarriage between Europeans and indigenous people — make it the ideal source region. The hair of indigenous Peruvian women is thick, straight, and black-perfect for the lace-front wigs sought by black women, who have come to represent the majority of Helene’s business — and is worn in two braids that often stretch all the way down their backs and are plaited with tassels made from Alpaca wool.

You can read her story at the link. The site design is unusual. It scrolls from left to right, and the scrolling buttons appear plus and minus signs on the sides of the page.

Link via Kottke | Photo by Flickr user The Gifted Photographer used under Creative Commons license

Chan Chan in Peru was and still is a maze of adobe walls adorned with Pre-Columbian designs. Archaeologists have been studying the site for years, and even up until now, they are still unsure as to how many inhabitants called Chan Chan their home.

Within the confines of the city there were religious buildings, cemeteries, reservoirs, communal gardens, residences, and some other structures that may have been used to house food and supplies.

Interestingly enough, there was a class system at Chan Chan, much like the districts are separated today. Social classes were sectioned off in nine “citadels” where they lived, worked, and carried on with their daily lives.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by lannaxe96.

German conservationists Kai Tiedemann and Anne Lummerich came up with an ingenious solution to Peruvian village Bellavista’s water problem. The small village south of the capital city of Lima has very little rainfall but a lot of fog, so the duo set up fog catchers to harvest hundreds of gallons of water a day right out of the air!

The nets stand perpendicular to the prevailing wind, which blows fog into the coarse, woven plastic mesh. From there, drops of fog-water fall into gutters that carry the water to collection tanks.

Link

As she travelled downstream, Koepcke discovered more wreckage from the plane — and found some of the crash victims.

“I found another row of seats with three dead women still strapped in. They had landed head-first and the impact must have been so hard that they were buried almost two feet into the ground.

“I was horrified — I didn’t want to touch them but I wanted to make sure that my mother wasn’t one of them. So I took a stick and knocked a shoe off one of the bodies. The toe nails had nail polish on them and I knew it could not have been my mother because she never used nail polish.”

Juliane continued through the rainforest, wading through jungle streams infested with crocodiles, piranhas and devil rays.

Koepcke is now a librarian in Munich. Read the whole story and see a video interview at CNN. Link -via reddit

A team of archaeologists co-led by Steve Bourget of the University of Texas discovered a treasure-filled tomb of the Moche Culture in Peru. They found this gem amongst the content: a 1,500-year-old funerary mask of Lord Ucupe, dubbed the "king of bling" because he was covered head to toe in shiny jewels and metals.

Kelly Hearn and Ted Chamberlain of the National Geographic News have the story: Link

The buildings found on the Pachallama peak are in remarkably good condition, estimated to be over 1,000 years old and comprised of the traditional round stone houses built by the Chachapoya, the ‘Cloud Forest People’. [...]

Archaeologist Benedicto Pérez Goicochea said: "The citadel is perched on the edge of an abyss.

"We suspect that the ancient inhabitants used this as a lookout point from where they could spot potential enemies."

Link

From the website:

Dated over 2,000 years old this skull is an extreme example of binding and elongation. Cranial binding is the shaping of the skull, when a child is very young, usually an infant. This wrapping is often done with rope or cloth by itself or against a wooden board. This results in the misshaping, flattening (see our cradle-board skull, BC-222) or in this case elongation. This wrapping, or binding is thought to be the oldest form of
body modifications, dating back 9,000 years. This particular skull is from Peru, but this practiced has occurred in other regions as well.

For other fantastic cast of bones, see: Link (via Jaf Project)