January 29

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REPORT FROM THE WALK:

INITIATED INTO THE ORB CARRIERS

Yesterday morning as we headed out of Lima and up into the Andes, there was a meeting of a group we’ve been calling the orb carriers and I was invited to join them along with a few others. We were going to be trained to also be orb carriers. I had no idea about some of the things I was told. Did you know they haven’t really been able to accurately date how old the orb is? It appears to be much older than all the civilizations in the Americas.

When exposed to humans in the right environment, the orb had great healing and cleansing effects, yet nobody has a good idea of how it does this.

The most serious part of the meeting was learning how many military groups were trying to get control of the orb, and what they have done in the past to try to get it.

We were warned that it was very likely that we would be discovered by one or more of these groups on route up to Machu Picchu. We were told to be very alert. To trust our intuition. Particularly, the orb carrier was to stay attuned to their senses. If we were to find ourselves in a threatening situation, we would be looking to the orb carrier for leadership.

Then Ernesto handed me the orb case and said “You can do this.”

THE INCA TRAIL

We climbed over several passes on our way to Cuzco, the ancient Incan capital. Before this city was raided in 1533 by the Spanish, it was a beautiful city, gold artistry everywhere. Beautiful streets, homes, gardens. This was the center of a world that stretched for thousands of miles, the Incan Empire. They had built a system of roads through the Andes north and south. Over 12,500 miles of roads. Remarkably many of these roads are still in great shape and still used.

The road to Machu Picchu starts on the Rio Urabamba, a short journey north and west of Cuzco. It still seems incredible to me that such an important place as Machu Picchu was not discovered by westerners until 1911. Less than 100 years ago! The Inca road here leaves the river valley and weaves back and forth up the side of the river valley, climbing over 2,000 meters before the first leveling off. Every few miles there are ruins of small Incan villages and travel stations. Each of them were amazing in themselves. There was nothing else around, just the mountains, the ancient road and these ancient villages – and us. We lost all sense of the age we were living in. We were in a timeless ancient world.

After traveling all day through this world, we were about twenty miles from Machu Piccho. Charlotte, our orb carrier, stopped. She was staring at the trail ahead. Like in a trance and slightly trembling. We looked where she was looking but didn’t see anything unusual. Then we saw.

It was a chasquis. I don’t know how we knew this. We just did. Chasquis were the ancient runners who relayed messages quickly through the Incan road system. He was a young man, moving very rapidly over the rough rocks. We all watched. He ran right up to us and stopped in front of Charlotte. He spoke in his native language to her. “Quickly”, Charlotte said, “There is a ruin above the trail, just around the next hill. We’ll gather there.” We ran. Lead by the young Incan, motioning for us to hurry.

This place was called Sayacmara (Town in a Steep Place). The trail ran right below it. There was a narrow, steep passage up into the town. At the highest point in the town there was a circular structure with one wall open. This is where we gathered.

The runner had told Charlotte there was a team of men, well armed with high tech weapons, coming down the path toward us. They were after the orb.

When we had gathered in the meeting place, Charlotte asked us to all sit still facing the center and catch our breath.

After just a few minutes, we could hear them coming. They were on that narrow passage. They would be in the town in just a couple minutes.

Ernesto assembled a small tripod in the center of the circle. Ms. Flanders, another orb carrier, took the orb out of its case and placed it on the tripod. As we watched it’s golden shiny surface, it grew brighter. It was a warm, comforting light. It made us forget the fear we might have had just a minute ago. It got too bright to see. There was a trembling. I couldn’t tell if it was my body or the whole town. That was all I remembered. The next thing was the feeling of waking up and the light subsiding as Ernesto placed the orb back into the carrier. Ms. Flanders told us all to take a drink of water. We were out of danger. We would be continuing on in a few minutes.

The young Incan man had been leaning over a wall watching the military men approaching when all this happened. He returned to our circle and seemed a bit stunned. Weren’t we all. Charlotte spoke to him in a language I didn’t understand. He said a few words, seemed to get more sober as he spoke. Then he stood up, bowed to us and jogged back down toward the trail.

Later, Charlotte told us what he had seen. As the men neared the top of the steep, narrow passage into the town, there was a blurry place and as the men stepped through that part of the path, they did not come out. They all went into that place and were gone.

I didn’t understand it. It did remind me of so many similar stories around the Bermuda Triangle, but still I didn’t understand.

MACHU PICCHU

The last part of the trail was amazing. We dropped all the way back down to the valley floor. Crossed on a long stone causeway over what looked like a dried up lake. We went through a tunnel carved into the mountain hundreds of years ago. Went through fields of beautiful butterflies. Then we climbed these stone stairs winding upwards and at the top was a stone archway called the Gateway of the Sun. And there through a rectangular opening we saw the sacred city for the first time – Machu Picchu.

We had just a wonderful experience here. We went all over the place and took lots of pictures. You can see some at this site below.

http://www.raingod.com/angus/Gallery/Photos/SouthAmerica/Peru/IncaTrail/MachuPicchu1.html

While we were enjoying the city and all of its wonders, Ernesto and a small group of archeologists and orb carriers went to the tomb where the orb was first discovered last August. They had come to believe there was something else in that place that was missed. They found it!

It was a small pyramid. It was made out of some material – I don’t know what – it was light weight, you could kinda see through it. It did strange things to the light. I heard Ms. Flanders say something about returning it to Egypt. I’m so excited! What an adventure this is turning out to be!

Although we all felt like we had come home at Machu Picchu, Ernesto said it was unfortunately dangerous for us to stay long.

We made our way down to the Urabamba river and followed it north, down stream for close to 100 miles. Then we took a little used trail up the side of the valley and headed east toward Brazil.

FROM OMAHAHA

We want to apologize again for losing that data last Thursday during the Croc Crisis. And to remind you again, that if you turned in miles during the day on Thursday, turn them in again.

Some of you have been wondering how we process all the data that comes in each day, so I’ve asked Hotsie, one of our most experienced data entry cats to explain. We caught up with her as she was getting a massage after work:

EarthWalk: “So Hotsie, how exactly to you handle all the data coming in from EarthWalk?”

Hotsie: “It all starts with Hairy the Hampster. We have one terminal where all the emails come in. Harry is just adorable. When an email comes in there is a ding sound. And Hairy, who is usually working out on his treadmill wheel, goes over and stands on the special one button keyboard we have made for him and it prints out the email. If there is paper in the printer, the printed email falls on the floor and a box turtle named Nesbit eventually grabs it and carries it over to one of us cats. If Nesbit is hungry he’ll occasionally eat one of these sheets. Once we get the data entry sheet, we usually spend some time sniffing it and then staring into space for a while. In due course we place a paw over the keyboard and step down. Then we repeat the process. We do this a few times then usually stop for a cat nap. That can last just a few minutes but more likely several hours. Each of us usually finishes about one sheet per day.”

EarthWalk: “So do you ever make any mistakes?”

Hotsie: “Me personally? I don’t think so. But all of our work goes though this artificial intelligence spelling correction system, so who knows. If there are any mistakes, we’d recommend you blame that machine.”

EarthWalk: “Thanks for your time Hotsie, we’ll let you get back to that massage.”

Hotsie: “Ohhhhhhhh. Ahhhhhhhhh. Chester, you’re lovely. A little lower dear.”

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