Lost Cities Found: My Circular Journey to the Retreats of the Inca Empire (Part 3: Arrival to and Escape from Vilcabamba)

José first provided me the photo to the left during one of his many Lima lectures, somewhere wedged into the fuller-than-full week I spent in the capital prior to my first trip to the Andes and the former capital of Cuzco. 

It's an image that's inspired and haunted me ever since. It shows Hiram Bingham with a local guide at the newly-found, for western science, ruins of Espiritu Pampa, or Vilcabamba, in August of 1911. 

As the lecture's lesson went, Bingham had "discovered" Machu Picchu only a few weeks before.

Pressed for time at Vilcabamba, Bingham had to leave the site. But he would return, however, in 1912 and 1915 in order to clear the jungle foliage, make measurements, and map the site. 

Importantly, Bingham failed to properly identify Vilcabamba as the last capital of the Incas, instead believing Machu Picchu to be the said location. Thus, the Old Mountain (the English translation of the Quechua, Machu Picchu) became the place of focus for intense clearance and excavations. And, within the next couple of decades, the "Lost City of the Incas," as it was known, gained world notoriety, which grew in acclaim through the decades. Today, the site is as popular a destination as it has ever been, with over a million total visitors to the park each year from 2012 to present-day.

If we're to be nitpicky, José affirmed, Vilcabamba could be considered the truer "Lost City of the Incas" when compared with Machu Picchu, for reasons that we'll discuss below. Regardless of stature, though, Vilcabamba most certainly is the last capital of the Incas. Specifically, it, along with Vitcos, was one of the capitals of the Incas during the Neo-Incan State, a necessary entity formed by loyalist Incas and led by the Sapa Inca (Manco Inca, et al.) and high officials, following the continued power ascension of the Spanish through the Andean region of greater Cuzco from 1537 onward. The expansion of Vilcabamba and Vitcos, and the populating of these areas, created a relatively insulated region, the Vilcabamba Region, for the Incas to live and operate from, between 1537 and 1572.

Oh, if José could see me now., I again fancied, antcipating our arrival to Vilcabamba proper and eventual escape back to Quillabamba.

Destination (Finally) Known: Vilcabamba

Notwithstanding the considerable time it took to complete the hellacious staircase descent, I, in the end, was victorious. 

However, my childish complains over the past four hours had taken their toll on my friend Eddy, who had had more than his fill from the complaining gringo. His arrival to Espiritu Pampa had been much more calm, poised, and drama-free. I, on the other hand, had probably resembled a flogged pig in labored, dolorous search of relief.

The psychophysical misery of the Neo-Incan staircase did come to a halt, however, but only after the last giant step. Then, and only then, did my excruciating knee-tension magically release. It was doubtless one of the most notable shifts I had ever experienced in my physical history. Astonished by it all, I looked back up toward the long, ominous staircase of death with this newfound lens of calm. It was as if, remarkably, the hitherto pain that had cursed my body for those thousand-or-so steps had never even existed.

Coasting along a flat path in swift, stunning silence, we intuited our upcoming entrance into a town. Sure enough, a brief, harmless incline at last yielded sight of the first sign mentioning Vilcabamba. I rejoiced in this discovery, as did my friend. Considering our demanding, two-day struggle from high mountains to bona fide jungle, our arrival couldn't have come at a more opportune time.