Are the Incas alive?

by Rafaela da Silva Garcia (Brazil)

A leap into the unknown Brazil

When you take your first steps in an unknown land, alone, with an intact plan in your hands and the will to live the most complete adventure, all feelings become one: love. Yes. Love. You feel ecstasy, nervousness, the butterflies in your stomach, the fear of what comes ahead, but with an immense desire to plunge into the depths of the unknown. Your eyes see beyond the daily streets, explore the marks of history and culture different from yours. That was the feeling when I traveled to Peru. I spent 10 days alone, exploring the lands full of cultures, such as the pre-Incas, Incas and Spanish. I absorbed so much knowledge that as soon as I left I wanted to go back for more. This is the effect that Peru has on people. Cusco is the center of culture and it was in the capital of the Incas that my journey began. There you immerse yourself in a history book, the streets are the chapters, the walls are the paragraphs and the people are the words. For each native you talk to, you see the country from a different perspective. There are many squares, churches, museums and architecture in general to explore. It's an up and down of hills and staircases to reach the most interesting corners of the city. The exercise is worth it if you, like me, are looking for all kinds of adventures, like the trails. Ah, the trails. If you have the opportunity to visit Lake Humantay and Rainbow Mountain, please go there. All the exoteric beauty of the places starts with the trails. For Rainbow Mountain, the trail is a sigh. Each section of it looks like you find yourself in a painting, painted with the most beautiful scenes on planet Earth. Mountains with snow peaks far away, lakes flowing as if they were spilled by someone, alpacas that walk peacefully between rocks. After all this wonder, you reach the top. They say there are seven colors, but it's possible to see many more, painted like a rainbow that got tired of the sky and laid on the mountain's back. My first reaction on seeing them was tear. It was all so beautiful and perfect that it couldn't be real. My soul cried. The happiness overflowed. Humantay's lake is not far behind. The steepest path, full of rocks and streams across the landscape, was unique in its own way. After so much climb you find a flat spot, in the middle of the mountains and there it is, in a gradient of blue, green and yellow. The lake smiles to you and you smile to the lake. In the background it is possible to see the ice of the mountain range composing the landscape in a contrast to the sun reflected on surface. But it isn’t just of nature that a traveler lives. The highlight of the trip was certainly to know more about the Inca culture. They were so smart and ahead of their time that theories that they were aliens are fully understandable. Their knowledge was not only technical, but spiritual. They were connected with everything around them to make the most of it with respect and gratefulness for what they absorbed. With agricultural laboratories and structures developed in mountains to produce faster and better. With huge sanctuaries protected and blessed by nature. The knowledge of the sky, the earth, the water, the air, the sun, the position of the stars. They had a way of measuring and enjoying the best of each benefit that the world gave them. Machu Picchu is the center of this sensation. It's magic. From the moment you step on the sacred land, you leave renewed and see the world with other colors. Everything pours an energy beyond normal. The air makes you more alive. After experiencing this whole experience, talking with natives, listening to the stories of guides and doing research, the conclusion I had is that the Incas are alive. They live in the language that is still taught, in architecture, in crafts, in the blood of each native and in every traveler who seeks to know more about them. Now the Incas live in me.