Are you sure?
This action might not be possible to undo. Are you sure you want to continue?
Southeastern Geographer: Fall 2013 Issue
Ratings:
215 pages2 hours
Summary
Table of Contents for Volume 53, Number 3 (Fall 2013)
COVER ART
The View from Huayna Picchu
Carl A. Reese
Introduction to Southeastern Geographer, Volume 53, Number 3
David M. Cochran and Carl A. Reese
PART I: PAPERS
High Temporal Resolution Land Use/ Land Cover Change from 1984 to 2010 of the Little River Watershed, Tennessee, Investigated Using Landsat and Google Earth Images
Chunhao Zhu and Yingkui Li
Look Away, Look Away, Look Away to Lexington: Struggles over Neo-Confederate Nationalism, Memory, and Masculinity in a Small Virginia Town
Jon D. Bohland
Web-Based Geospatial Technology Tools for Metropolitan Planning Organizations
Rakesh Malhotra, Gurmeet Virk, Felix Nwoko, and Amanda Klepper
Spatial and Temporal Patterns of an Ethnic Economy in a Suburban Landscape of the Nuevo South
Nancy Hoalst-Pullen, Vanessa Slinger-Friedman, Harold R. Trendell, and Mark W. Patterson
Toward a Publicly Engaged Geography: Polycentric and Iterated Research
Jennifer F. Brewer
PART II: REVIEWS
Longleaf, Far as the Eye Can See: A New Vision of North America's Richest Forest
Bill Finch, Beth Maynor Young, Rhett Johnson, and John C. Hall
Reviewed by Grant L. Harley
The Land Was Ours: African American Beaches from Jim Crow to the Sunbelt South
Andrew W. Kahrl
Reviewed by Heather Ward
Publisher: The University of North Carolina PressReleased: Sep 1, 2013ISBN: 9781469609027Format: book
Book Preview
Southeastern Geographer
segeditors@gmail.com
COVER ART
The View from Huayna Picchu
CARL A. ANDY
REESE
University of Southern Mississippi
Every Easter, my wife, her three sisters, and all of the associated families, make a pilgrimage to Franklin, Louisiana to visit my in-laws. The weekend is the typical four-alarm family fiasco,
loaded with food and fun in an overfilled house complete with a handful of screaming children, ages 1 through 6. Fortunately, my two children are by far the loudest, thus easier to locate within the fray.
One of my favorite parts of the visit though, is getting to catch up with my brothers-in-law, with whom I have a pretty good relationship. On the most recent, 2013 edition of this sojourn, I fell into a conversation about travel with my youngest brother-in-law, Craig Brentlinger. Craig is a traveler at heart, but hasn’t been afforded much opportunity to do so yet. During the exchange we both discussed the top five destinations we wanted to visit before we died, and right at the top of Craig’s list was Machu Picchu. Having been to Machu Picchu myself and being a geographer, I was interested in his perception of the site and knowing exactly why he wanted to visit the ruins. Craig’s answers were very similar to my own pre-visit perceptions, as well as thousands of other would-be travelers, I assume, who have nothing more to go on than the classic, National Geographic-style photograph of the ruins usually taken from the Sun Gate, Intipunku (Figure 1, photo by Martin St-Amant 2009). During the questioning, a few of the adjectives that Craig used to describe his perception of the ruins were remote, isolated, and mountaintop. Though the classic photos of Machu Picchu can certainly lead one to believe that this is the case (as it did me), none of these are true today, and most likely were not true even back in the 1400’s.
My own trip to Machu Picchu was in late December of 2000. I had spent the previous few weeks with a fellow graduate student from Louisiana State University, Jason Blackburn, collecting surface soil samples from various locations throughout Peru and Bolivia. This preliminary work became a major part of my dissertation, studying the modern pollen rain in the central Andes region of South America (Reese 2003; Reese and Liu 2005). Though we were originally scheduled to be home by Christmas, the fieldwork ran long, and we ended up spending Christmas day in Cusco, Peru with our rescheduled flights not departing until after New Years. With a few days to kill, my friend and I decided to do one of the hikes to Machu Picchu. In Cusco, dozens of companies offer guided tours along the Incan Trail to Machu Picchu. These hikes out of Cusco are of varying length, from a short two days to a full 8-day trek, which begins and ends in Cusco. Given our short window of time, and limited budget, we opted for the two-day hike.
Figure 1. Machu Picchu. Photo by Martin St-Amant, 2009.
Our journey started at the Cusco train station where we caught the train to Machu Picchu. From what I can remember, the ticket was fairly expensive, but the ride itself was well worth the price. Stunning vistas lay around every corner as the train snaked its way along the Urubamba River valley. At kilometer 104, we disembarked the train and walked a few hundred yards to the trailhead where our guide was waiting. Once all of the members of our group arrived (about ten), we set off. At this point, we were not actually on the Inca Trail, but rather cutting across country to join the main trail at the ruins of Wiñay Wayna about five hours away. One of my previous misconceptions about Machu Picchu was that it was isolated, located far from any other settlements in the Inca Empire. The Inca Trail between Cusco and Machu Picchu, however, is dotted with the ruins of small villages and outposts. Giulio Magli (2010) recently interpreted this as a pilgrimage route, with Machu Picchu as the final destination. It should be pointed out that these other ruins are not limited to the Incan Trail proper. During the first section of our hike, as we cut over to the Inca Trail, we stopped to explore the ruins of Chachabamba, which were discovered in 1940. Though the purpose of the settlement is not known, it may have served as a checkpoint or guard post along this minor trail from the Urubamba River to the Inca Trail proper. Whatever its purpose, it seems clear that even during the time of the Inca Empire, Machu Picchu was within only an hour or two on foot to any number of outpost or settlements that once dotted the landscape along the Urubamba valley.
After leaving Chachabamba, the trail led us higher, through the forests that line the valley walls of the Urubamba. I remember being humbled by the startling diversity in vegetation and the shear beauty of my surroundings. After a few hours, we arrived at Wiñay Wayna and joined the Inca Trail. This is a large, impressive complex that was built in a series of terraces on a steep section of the valley walls. The stonework of the Incas is hard to put into adequate words. However, its brilliance and ingenuity is evident on the extreme slope that they had to work with at Wiñay Wayna. After an hour or two exploring the ruins, we hiked to a campground where we spent the night before our arrival to Machu Picchu.
We awoke before sunrise the next morning. Through the moonlight we could see that a thick fog had enveloped the Urubamba Valley over night. The guide suggested we wait a few hours before our hike down to the ruins in hopes that the fog would lift with daylight. Otherwise, there would be nothing to see when we arrived at the Sun Gate, with the ruins still shrouded in fog. A few hours’ wait dragged on and it wasn’t until 11:00 am before the fog began to lift. Even when we arrived downslope at the Sun Gate, which overlooks Machu Picchu, much of the view was still obscured by fog. I played the dutiful tourist and tried to capture a few photographs of the scene, but unfortunately what was most visible in those pictures are hundreds of tiny multi-colored dots (tourists rain jackets and ponchos) littering the landscape. Taking the scenic way into Machu Picchu, I had completely forgotten about the thousands of tourists that come into the site everyday via buses from Cusco, or from hotels located in the vicinity of the site. Due to our late start, many of these tourists had been there since the park opened and had fully penetrated the entire site. Also, from our initial entry through the Sun Gate, the Machu Picchu hotel was in full view, from which additional scores of multi-colored dots entered the scene. It was around that time that the mystique I had felt about Machu Picchu evaporated and I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment. If only the fog had dissipated more quickly that morning! It bears mentioning that since my visit, the Peruvian government now limits the number of visitors to the site each day. This is a marked improvement in my opinion.
As we combed the ruins over the next few hours, it was impossible to turn a corner without encountering a fellow visitor. In need of some personal space, we inquired about additional activities at the ruins, and someone mentioned that we could climb Huayna Picchu. Huayna Picchu, or young peak,
is the tall mountain that is in the background of most photographs of Machu Picchu (Figure 1). If you recall, one of my brother-in-law’s perception of Machu Picchu was that it sat upon a mountaintop. However, the ruins actually rest on a long ridge that connects the two mountains of Machu Picchu, or old peak,
and Huayna Picchu. Despite several warnings that there were some rather exposed sections of the climb up Huayna Picchu, which could be perilous on this wet and foggy day, we ventured on.
Our climb up Huayna Picchu was without a doubt the highlight of the trip. Though very steep, there is an old path, cut into the stone in some sections that leads straight up the side of the mountain. Some parts of the climb are indeed exposed, where a tiny slip would send you in a long free fall off the side of the mountain. There are also two or three areas where there are fixed ropes and cables to help climbers up particularly difficult sections. The climb only took a little more than an hour, but the view from the top, which is the cover art image for this issue of the Southeastern Geographer, was spectacular. We were surprised to find ruins near the summit of Huayna Picchu as well. Though conjectural, some researchers believe that these structures might have been the residence of a high-ranking religious figure who presided over Machu Picchu. I know little about how these ruins were built, but I assume that each stone that went in to building this lofty residence had to have been carried up the side of the mountain from the main quarry at Machu Picchu. That would have been no small feat.
Though in solitude at the summit of Huayna Picchu (we passed only a handful of other travelers climbing the peak that day), we could still see the sea of multi-colored dots slowly moving across the ruins below, as well as the Machu Picchu Hotel, which is visible in the cover photo. Also present, but out of the frame in the cover image, is the long series of switchbacks and the endless string of buses and cars making their way into or leaving the park. With the reality, not the majesty and mystery, of Machu Picchu staring me in the face from my perch on the summit, I couldn’t help but feel deceived by the thousands of photos that always show the ruins from the south-southeast (usually from the Sun Gate, upper cemetery, or Funerary Rock). The view from Huayna Picchu couldn’t be more different. For any photograph, what is left out of the frame might be as equally important as what is included, at least in understanding the place of interest.
I would like to point out that neither Craig nor I (pre-visit) ever expected to be the only people at the site. I’ve never had dreams of Harrison Ford, whip in hand, leading me through the jungle to visit the ruins unmolested. Machu Picchu is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World and deservingly so. Its status as a world-class tourist attraction and World Heritage Site is firmly established and will be in high demand for longer than I will be around. I also hope my commentary doesn’t dissuade anyone from visiting Peru or Machu Picchu. Visiting the ruins remains one of my fondest memories from the years I spent in Peru conducting research. My only recommendation is to view the site from Huayna Picchu first, the other side of the coin, so to speak, temper your expectations, and to take the bus from Cusco like everyone else!
REFERENCES
Magli, G. 2010. At the other end of the sun’s path: A new interpretation of Machu Picchu. Nexus Network Journal 12:321–341.
Reese, C.A. 2003. Pollen dispersal and deposition in the high-central Andes, South America.
Ph.D. Dissertation, Louisiana State University.
Reese, C.A. and Liu, K-b. 2005. A modern pollen rain study from the central Andes region of South America. Journal of Biogeography 32:709–718.
INTRODUCTION
Dear Readers,
We are pleased to introduce the Fall 2013 issue of Southeastern Geographer. As you might have already noticed, our cover art this time is a marked departure from past issues. The photograph, entitled, The View from Huayna Picchu,
was contributed by Andy Reese and depicts a unique image of Machu Picchu, the famous Inca archaeological site located not far from Cusco, Peru. What makes this photograph so interesting is that it was not taken at the Sun Gate—where the typical panoramic view of Machu Picchu can be seen—but from the seemingly inaccessible peak located in the background of most popular images of the site. In the adjoining essay, Reese narrates the journey on which he took his photograph, reminding us how our preconceptions of places and our efforts to document them in photographs and other media can actually hinder our experiencing them. It’s a good lesson for geographers who, more than most, appreciate the fact that what is included within the frame of a photograph might not be nearly as significant as what is left out.
This issue of Southeastern Geographer contains five research articles that encompass a range of topics and collectively demonstrate the
You've reached the end of this preview. Sign up to read more!
Page 1 of 1