Researchers: Ancients liked food hot and spicy

By Lee Bowman
Scripps Howard News Service

Americans have been serving it up hot and spicy for at least 6,000 years, according to a new study of bits of fossilized chili peppers recovered from ancient grindstones and cookware.

Researchers report today in the journal Science that they found evidence of chilies being used at seven archaeological sites ranging from the Bahamas to Peru as long as 6,000 years ago, making them one of the oldest domesticated food sources in the Americas.

Botanists generally agree that chili peppers originated in Bolivia, but just how and when different species were domesticated and spread remains unclear.

The study was made possible by recent scientific advances that have allowed researchers to recover minute amounts of starches from food-cooking and -processing tools.

Two years ago, researchers at an archaeology conference at the University of Calgary began comparing notes about an unidentified starch recovered at sites around Latin America. Soon after, Linda Perry, a researcher at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, identified the starch as coming from chili peppers.

"It was surprising to find that the chili pepper, which is technically a fruit, left behind evidence of starch, which is more often associated with foods such as maize and root vegetables," said Ruth Dickau, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Calgary and a co-author of the study.

"So much of the research on the origins of agriculture in the region has focused on staple crops, but now here is one of the first condiments we've been able to trace. It's quite interesting."

The oldest chili remains were found at two sites in Ecuador. In some spots, the use of chilies appears to predate the development of ceramic pottery.

Co-author Deborah Pearsall, a professor of anthropology at the University of Missouri, Columbia, noted that "Chili peppers don't preserve well, because when you cook with them, you eat most of them; you don't have husks or shells that are thrown away and preserved. That's why the technique that allows us to analyze microscopic starch grains is important."

Pearsall said they found that the same grinding stones were used for corn, chili peppers and a starchy root called manioc, and that those ingredients were probably combined to make soups or stews

Inca link is a bridge too far, say critics

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 10/02/2007
By Danielle Demetriou

A controversial new bridge close to Peru's most famous sight, Machu Picchu, could have a damaging impact on tourism to the ruins, critics have said.
The 80-metre (262ft) bridge, due to open later this month, will create a new route to the Inca ruins and enable locals to take produce to Cusco in three hours instead of 12.
However, politicians and environmentalists fear that the bridge, due to open this month, will bring a surge in tourist numbers, which could damage the ruins and lead to an increase in drug trafficking in the region.

British tour operators seem to be in two minds on the plan. A spokeswoman for Journey Latin America said: "Our feelings about the bridge are mixed. We are excited about the potential for development of the village and the surrounding area, which is so much less known and wealthy than Cusco and the Sacred Valley. But we feel it is essential that visitor numbers are closely monitored and regulated." It is not the first time concerns have been raised about the future of Machu Picchu. Named a Unesco World Heritage Site, it currently attracts as many as 2,500 visitors a day. Unesco inspectors are due to inspect the site later this year to ascertain whether its status is endangered.

Last year, the Peruvian government announced that it had restricted the numbers permitted to walk the Inca Trail at any one time. Five months ago, the site was declared a no-fly zone by the government because of fears that low-flying helicopter tours for tourists were damaging the habitat.

Taking the Back Roads to Machu Picchu

By PATRICK O’GILFOIL HEALY
Published New York times: November 12, 2006

AS it runs through craggy mountain passes and ancient Incan ruins, the fabled Inca Trail in Peru reveals surprise after surprise to travelers hiking its length to the lost city of Machu Picchu. But here’s a new one: To set foot on that fabled Andean footpath, you’ve first got to fight through a three-month waiting list.

A few years ago, the Inca Trail was becoming the Long Island Expressway of central Peru, brimming with trash, tourists and growing concerns about overuse. So the Peruvian government began enforcing strict limits on the number of people allowed on the trail. Right now, only 500 people a day may enter — about 200 tourists and 300 guides and porters.

And so, “alternative” Inca Trails are gaining popularity with travelers unable or unwilling to book a slot three to six months in advance. These treks can be booked a day or two in advance and can cost less than half as much as a hike on the Inca Trail.

Which is how I ended up huddled in the shadow of a 20,500-foot mountain one afternoon last summer, shivering around a table with seven other trekkers as we tried to scarf down plates of cold fish before the snow and wind tore them from our hands.

Unable to beg, borrow or steal a spot on the traditional Inca Trail, we had each decided to take on one of the most popular Plan B routes — a four-day trek past Nevado Salkantay, a jagged, snowy fang of a mountain that lies about 10 miles south of mountaintop Machu Picchu. (Tour operators also offer two other main routes, through the Lares Valley or via the lost Incan city of Choquequirao.)

The Lares Valley sprawls out to the east of Machu Picchu. Hikers generally pass by the snow-capped mountain Helancoma and thread through Andean villages, past mountain lakes and on to Inca ruins in the town of Ollantaytambo. From there, hikers walk or catch a train to Machu Picchu.

Others trek past the remote Inca city of Choquequirao, set on a ridge high above the glacier-cold River Apurimac, southwest of Machu Picchu. From there, it’s about three to five days’ hiking to Machu Picchu. The route is among the longest and hardest paths in the Peruvian Sacred Valley, looping travelers over steep and slick mountain switchbacks, across rivers and waterfalls.

Of course, these paths are often second choices or last-minute alternatives for travelers, and they lack the cachet of actually hiking the Inca Trail. You don’t see the same banquet of Inca ruins, and you enter Machu Picchu from below, rather than crossing beneath an Inca Sun Gate to descend into the city.

Still, the alternative routes are cheap and relatively unspoiled. Some tours cost $500 to more than $1,000. Yet travelers can pay as little as $160 for five days of hiking, guides and meals if they are willing to bargain hard with the hundreds of tour agencies that line the streets of Cuzco, a bustling city nearby that serves as a jumping-off point for many Machu Picchu treks.

The treks wend through remote villages and traverse farmers’ fields. You sleep in backyards, meet shepherds and watch Quechua-speaking women weave blankets, or mantas, on hillsides. You walk the same paths as farmers lugging bananas and avocados to market and see few, if any, other groups of tourists.

“This seemed a little bit less touristy and farther off the beaten path, and that was exactly what I was looking for,” said Amanda Rosenblum, 25, of Los Angeles, who hiked five days west through the Sacred Valley with the tour operator Andean Treks. “I twisted my ankles, I wrecked my knees descending a rock-strewn hillside with no path for an hour, and I fell on a cactus while bouldering. I am so glad I went.”

Though Machu Picchu itself limits the number of people allowed in each morning, travelers can still just show up, buy tickets to the ruins and enter with little waiting. Many tourists simply bypass the treks altogether and catch a four-hour train from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes, the tiny tourist town set just below Machu Picchu. From there, it’s an hourlong hike or a 20-minute bus ride to the ruins at the summit. Tourists who time it right can squeeze the entire trip into one day.

We opted to do it in four.

THE trek began at 5:30 one morning when a friend and I opened our front door in Cuzco to meet a 20-year-old munching on a banana. “I am Coco,” he said, in heavily accented English. “I am the guide. We are late.”

My friend and I, both Americans, crammed our bags into a white station wagon, where a German woman and her Bosnian boyfriend were already waiting. We would climb with them, as well as a pair of Egyptian newlyweds and an Irish woman and her English boyfriend.
We drove two hours to the mountain town of Mollepata, about 20 miles southwest of Machu Picchu. From there, we hopped into a four-wheel-drive Nissan to scale the steep, narrow and bumpy mud path leading to the trailhead.

The driver blared his horn before careening around blind corners and scattered the chickens and horses meandering up the road. A hitchhiking farmer looking for a ride home climbed onto the roof and held on for dear life, as the truck charged uphill like an angry bull.
At the top, we met the rest of the group and set out on foot. In all, we were eight hikers, two guides, two cooks and a shy teenager named Daniel who tended (and slept with) the three mules that lugged our luggage.

Salkantay would loom over us for half of the four-day, three-night hike of about 40 miles. Inca lore personified the mountain as a god whose rivers and rain fertilized the female earth below to create life.

Farmers and ranchers still venerate the mountain every year, offering gifts of coca leaves before shearing their flocks or planting crops in the sparse and rocky soil. We passed stone-walled pens where forked branches stood upright in the center. There, the guides said, the farmers hang their gifts to the mountain.

Salkantay and its sister mountains take their due from climbers, too. Mountains in this chain are steep and prone to avalanches, making them some of the area’s most difficult peaks. In 1995, eight Argentine climbers died scaling Sullunco, a nearby peak. Two years earlier, two British climbers died on Salkantay. All of the Salkantay treks pass around, not over, the mountain.
We climbed north, from a dry valley lined with the varicose veins of old farmers’ paths, toward the first of a series of brutal switchbacks that would lift us from 12,000 feet to just under 15,000 feet in one day. The scrub brush and amber grasses vanished, replaced by moss, cactus and ever colder wind.

“Look,” Coco the guide called to me in Spanish, pointing at the ebony shards of mountaintop surrounding us. “Nine years ago, those were covered in snow. Now, there’s nothing.”
Perhaps. The guides’ accounts of Inca mythology and explanations of natural phenomena were always interesting, but occasionally dubious. After all, nine years ago, Coco was about 11 years old.

Still, up we went, over an exhausting progression of steep switchbacks. The air thinned with each step, and the members of our group began staggering, pausing to try to catch a breath. Our acclimatized guides raced ahead.

I was panting in the thin air and had run out of water when Percy, the other guide, showed me the chunks of snow and frost hidden in shadows that had survived the sun’s beating gaze. We pulled pieces from the cool crevices, dusted off the dirt and ate them.

“Muy rico,” Percy said, flicking a leaf off his piece. “Better than ice cream, no?”

It wasn’t the last time we saw snow. The mountain threw fog and snow flurries on us as we approached the highest point of the trek, a pass at 15,000 feet, which we reached at midafternoon on Day 1. When we woke the next morning, the tents we’d pitched in a shepherd family’s yard were glazed with frost.

The next day, we descended from sierra to selva, from mountains to jungle, leaving an eerie moonscape of giant moss-speckled boulders. We passed isolated mud-brick huts where sick or injured travelers sometimes spend the night.

As we dropped, the air grew sweet and warm and trees sprang up around us. We paused in the tiny village of Andenes and asked the sole shopkeeper for a few snacks.

She shook her head: “Water, coca leaves, nothing more.”

Bamboo-like trees hung off the sides of the mountain as if their trunks were made of rubber. Pollen-yellow flowers bloomed everywhere. A young boy on horseback and his father guided a chain of mules past us. We drank from the mountain waterfalls feeding the rivers below us.
We were sweating and stripping off clothes, but as we looked back across the sunny valley, we could see miles of snow-capped mountains behind us, framed by hills and mesas as green as pool tables.

In the dusty village of Playa, where we camped the second night, we passed the Salkantay Disco Bar, a dark and empty cinder-block cube. We waited in line with locals on their way to work to cross a torrent of river in a metal basket on a zip line.

We hopped into the back of a cargo truck on the third day to shorten the travel time to Hidroeléctrica, a departure point for the train to Machu Picchu. We walked along the rail lines that head toward the ruins and chatted with two railroad workers who rolled by in a tiny beetle-shaped train car.

And then, as we crossed a rouge-red train bridge, Coco pointed up and said, “There it is.” Machu Picchu, as seen from hundreds of feet below, a faint crown of stones set atop a sheer mountain.
In less than an hour, we would walk into the tourist village of Aguas Calientes and rest for the next morning’s climb to Machu Picchu.

When we arrived at the ruins just before dawn, stepping into a landscape of smooth Inca stone, drowsy llamas and grasses as flat as a putting green. After four days of traversing the rugged countryside and 20-family villages, the tourist-filled tableau of Machu Picchu shocked the system. Beautiful, of course, but so tame by comparison with the rest of our journey — like culture under glass.

Our guide caught our attention and pointed toward a line of distant mountains as the rising sun polished away their shadows. And there it was — the peak of Salkantay.
It had followed us all the way.

VISITOR INFORMATION

Prices, which the tour operators state in U.S. dollars, are for 2006 and are per person. Several operators say 2007 prices are likely to go up.

PATRICK O’GILFOIL HEALY, a former reporter for The New York Times, is now traveling through Latin America.

INTERESTING LINKS FOR VISITORS
Inca trail tours 
Inca trail map
Alternative Inca trail
Tambopata Jungle tours
Manu jungle tours

Peru trek gives Linda focus

LINDA Noonan says she was in a daze following the death of her husband, when she applied for a charity trek that will take her to Peru later this year.Linda, 56, of Lawson Street, Maryport, had decided to retire early as chef at Broughton Craggs to spend time with Mike, who was 12 years older than her.But just a week before she was due to finish work in March last year, Mike died of lung cancer, only five weeks after he was diagnosed.It was a body blow for Linda who had already faced two bouts of breast cancer herself and who had watched Mike fight back from brain haemorrhages, when he was 38 and 48.Because of his illness, Mike had become slightly disabled but he was still always able to look at the world in a positive light, Linda says.“We went on holiday to West Africa in January last year and he became ill with a chest infection. He landed in hospital and it was there that he was diagnosed with cancer.”She says his death was a huge blow and it was in the fuzzy aftermath, where she barely knew what she was doing, that she sent away an application for a charity trek to Peru.“I’d almost forgotten about it when I was told I was accepted,” she said.While she is still fighting the loneliness and just missing Mike, she says the trip has certainly given her something to focus on.It is being held to raise money for Scope, a charity dedicated to raising money for research and support for those with cerebral palsy.“Mike didn’t have cerebral palsy but because he had become quite disabled, I felt this was the right charity for me.”She needs to raise £2,800 for the trip, although anything above that would be welcomed by the charity, she says.She will spend 10 days in the spring trekking in Peru, following the Inca Trail up to the ancient city of Machupicchu.There are 34 people on the trek and she met her travelling companions at a seminar last weekend.“Having met them and after talking about the trek, it is starting to seem real,” she says.While she will be raising money for charity, she says the trip will also be for Mike.“Two days before he died, Mike told me: “You must do the things you want to do. “I think him dying has put everything into perspective for me.”Anyone who would like to help Linda in her fund-raising can leave money or cheques made out to Scope at the Nat West Bank in Maryport or can write to her at 66 Lawson Road, Maryport, CA15 6LZ.

Happy trails around Machu Picchu's 'sister' site in Peru

Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Arriving at Choquequirao after a gruelling six-day trek through the Andes, was a prize made all the sweeter for Ben Fogle - Machu Picchu's little-known 'sister' was bathed in sunlight with no other visitors in sight
Peru. Say the name and your imagination will no doubt conjure up the country's geographical wonders, perhaps its recent history of political turbulence and its lost cities. It has long attracted travellers, explorers and treasure hunters, united in their search to uncover the secrets and wealth of ancient civilisations. Indeed, only last year the German explorer Stefan Ziemendorff discovered the third tallest free-falling waterfall in the world in the Amazonas region of Peru; the Gocta Waterfall measured a dizzying 771m high.
What seems remarkable is that in this age of satellite imagery such a vast waterfall had lain undiscovered. But then this is what has attracted thrill-seekers to deepest Peru since the Spanish Conquistadores first set foot here. It was a spell under which I fell 15 years ago.
The early 1990s were not a good time for Peru. The country was plagued by guerrilla warfare waged by the Sendero Luminoso. The aim of this Maoist group, whose name translates as Shining Path, was to replace the Peruvian bourgeoisie with a revolutionary peasant regime. The Sendero Luminoso also engaged in armed conflict with Peru's other major guerrilla group, Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA). Peru was a war zone: for a wide-eyed gap-year student with an unhealthy interest in Kate Adie and Don McCullin and a thirst for excitement and adventure, it was the perfect place to explore.
For four memorable weeks, I travelled with friends the length and breadth of the country, from the high Andes to the low Amazon. Fresh from six months in tourist-friendly Ecuador we felt like pioneers exploring a new land.
Selfishly, against all Foreign Office advice, and contrary to our parents' wishes, we made the pilgrimage to Machu Picchu. For four glorious days we had the 33km Inca trail to ourselves. We hiked and hacked our way along spectacular passes and ravines until we finally reached the Lost City of the Incas. For hours we walked among the deserted city shrouded in grandeur and mystery. Llamas roamed the ruins, there wasn't a Coca-Cola sign in sight. It was a mystical and magical experience.
How times have changed. Just a few months after that early visit Abimael Guzman, the leader of the Shining Path, was captured and the group splintered. Peru re-opened for business. Tourism flourished, but with it came the inevitable environmental impact on the Unesco World Heritage Site. Visitor numbers have soared to nearly 4,000 per day, catered for by the construction of a chairlift and even a luxury hotel at the site. The recent construction of a 78m bridge across the Vilcanota River will cut the journey time from Cusco by an incredible 12 hours, opening the sight to buses for the first time. With numbers swelling, the Unesco World Heritage Committee will visit Machu Picchu next month. Persistent rumours abound that the site will soon be "closed", only to be viewed from elevated walkways and platforms.
However, there is an alternative: Choquequirao, often referred to as Machu Picchu's sister site. It is arguably as spectacular as Machu Picchu, and officials hope it can save its sibling by alleviating some of the pressure.
Choquequirao is one of the best-preserved Inca cities in South America; only 30 per cent of the site has been excavated so far. It was here that the Inca royalty fled following the Spanish Conquest. The shrines and highways throughout the region were maintained until 1572 when the Conquistadores finally reached this remote refuge and put an end to this dynasty. Hiram Bingham, who rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911 with the help of some locals, described the route to Choquequirao as "impassable" and "not to be attempted". Excavations on the site began in the 1970s, but the trail has now been opened and is "passable" in a strenuous two-day trek from the village of Cachora, though best attempted over seven days of trekking and camping - as our group would.
The Inca trail to Choquequirao is more demanding than the popular Machu Picchu trek, but the rewards are well worth the effort to reach the ancient site known as the "Cradle of Gold" in Quechua.
Our journey began at the heart of the once mighty Inca Empire, Cusco. The colonial architecture is built on the solid foundations of the Incas. Cobbled streets, Incan walls and steep stairways bustle with the Quechua-speaking descendants of the Incas. Cusco has changed significantly over the years, its economy now reliant on tourism. It has, though, managed to retain much of its former charm.
Pepe, our guide for the week-long trek, was a dead-ringer for Jack Nicholson, from whose films he had learnt English. Pepe was also a Peruvian celebrity, having won a Latino version of Big Brother in which contestants had to live like Incas for several months.
The Andes provide an ever-changing canvas of colours. The landscape varies as much as the weather. We began our journey, as we would conclude it, in the rain. But this wasn't dour, damp, dreary UK rain; this was enjoyable, evocative, ethereal Andean rain. The precipitation only enhanced the dramatic landscape. The low cloud cover swathed the snowy peaks of this vast mountain range, enveloping us in its grey cloak. Newly-formed streams cascaded off the Incan steps as we trudged on, eyes to the ground. At this height the air is already thin and you have to learn to breathe again.
With the highest path reaching over 4,500m, we had some four-legged friends, mules, as well as a team of porters and cooks to help make the journey more comfortable. The thin air reduced us to a tortoise pace while the porters hared past with their oversized packs, mouths stuffed with coca leaves. Each afternoon, we would shuffle into camp to find our temporary canvas village already erected. A small dining tent illuminated by paraffin lamp welcomed us with bowls of steaming soup and cups of mate de coca to alleviate the debilitating effects of altitude sickness that fogged our minds.
Much of the trail is along slabs of stone, hand-carved and laid by the Incas. By astonishing acts of engineering they built thousands of kilometres of paths all across the Andes, like mountain motorways. The trail passes many * * small villages, as yet unblemished by the spoils of tourism. The people of Yanama village even surprised us with a feast of cuy cuy, guinea pig, while allowing us to camp on the school's football field.
The 7,000 metre-high mountains remained invisible for much of the time as we made our way along narrow passes and through deep gorges. Intermittently they would drop their mask and a snowy peak would appear through a window of cloud like a skylight to heaven.
Charcoal colours eventually turned to brushes of green and blue, as at last the chilled, cloud-smothered, oxygen-starved mountains gave way to hot tropical flora as we descended to the Apurimac River. For the first time in days I felt the sun's kiss. Sweet floral scents filled the air as we zigzagged our way down the steep mountain pass. Walking sticks were replaced by machetes as we descended towards the river's thunderous roar.
Once again the great Andean theatre had changed its set. Drops of rain were replaced by beads of sweat as I hacked my way through this new environment tantalised by the promise of fresh water and a chance to bathe. However, the heavy rains had turned the river into a cauldron, destroying the bridge over which we had hoped to cross. After a quick wash in the chilly waters, the resourceful porters began to make a temporary bridge where the river was at its widest and therefore most passive over which we and our mule train tentatively passed.
Before long, we bade farewell to the tropical river basin as we once again ascended the valley back up into the menacing mop of cloud. Day six, and the gods stopped us in our tracks with a theatrical extravaganza. I lay in my tent as bolts of lightning illuminated the valley. Deafening thunder-claps accompanied each mesmeric flash as the heavens were split by a flood of biblical proportions. Newly formed rivers cascaded past my tent and off the mountaintop. I understood why the Incas worshipped the elements. Finally the rain abated and we continued along the muddy trail. Just one mountain pass lay between us and the Cradle of Gold. The cloud had lifted slightly and finally it seemed as though we would make it. Onwards we trekked for several hours until we rounded a corner and caught our first glimpse of Choquequirao. It was bathed in sunlight, straddling a vast mountain. Cradle of Gold, indeed.
With a spring in our step we descended the steep path until we reached a flat plateau. Here, we followed an impossibly long Incan wall, above which dozens of terraces were interspersed by stairways that soared to the top of the mountain.
The beauty of Choquequirao, as with Machu Picchu, is as much the surroundings as the site itself. It is saddled atop a mountain, like a giant nest, overlooked by the enormous snowy peaks of the Andes.
The exhilaration and euphoria of having reached this magnificent city washed away six days of rain and weariness. The sun beat down as I climbed the final steps to the terrace overlooking the citadel and steep valleys beyond. As I stood there, mesmerised by the beauty and astonished by the sheer scale of the place, a condor soared into the valley below, floating on a thermal, it spiralled up and up silhouetted against the dank cloud. It was imperial, majestic and deeply moving. Choquequirao has many secrets still to be uncovered. The real joy is its as-yet unexploited solitude. We were the only visitors to the site; I felt I was privy to a great secret as I explored the dozens of buildings scattered around the citadel. The setting sun cast a golden glow across the site. I felt on top of the world, a pioneering 18th-century explorer. I'd found the lost city I'd been looking for.
Ben Fogle will be in conversation with Sandi Toksvig at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London SW7 2AR on Tuesday 27 February at 7pm; tickets £10 from events@ rgs.org
TRAVELLER'S GUIDE
GETTING THERE
No flights currently operate direct between the UK and Peru. The main routes to the Peruvian capital, Lima, are on Iberia ( www.iberia.com) via Madrid and American Airlines ( www.aa.com) via Miami.
To reduce the impact on the environment, you can buy an "offset" from Climate Care ( www.climatecare.org). The cost of a return flight from London to Lima, in economy class, is £19.20. The money is used to fund sustainable energy and reforestation projects.

Tourism Contributes to Machu Picchu’s Status as an Endangered Historical Site

Recently, considerable attention has been paid to tourism’s affect on particular travel destinations. One site under scrutiny is Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca city in Peru’s Andes Mountains. Geological research, controversial development projects, and actions by preservation groups have caused the world to turn an increasingly watchful eye on this historical landmark. A recent Newsweek article listed Machu Picchu among the world’s top endangered travel destinations and concluded that “the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu is in danger of becoming a victim of its own popularity.”www.msn.com/id/12115727/site/newsweek/Whether directly or indirectly, much of the debate surrounding the future of Machu Picchu involves the effects of tourism. Most sources seem to agree that tourism is taking its toll on the site in some way. Newsweek estimates as many as 500,000 people visit the site each year. The Los Angeles Times reported that tourism has increased tenfold since 1991, mainly as a result of Peru’s increased political stability. nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002988715_machupicchu12.htmlIt seems visitors treading on the site has compacted the soil and weakened building foundations; hikers are also criticized for littering the trail up to the summit. nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0415_020415_machu.htmlTourism has also been linked to potential landslides. At a 2001 UN symposium, New Scientist magazine reported that the site is in serious danger of another landslide (in 1995 and 1996, two landslides blocked road access), one that could destroy the landmark entirely. www.unwire.org/unwire/20010309/13412_story.aspWhen an eight-million-dollar plan to run cable cars up the mountain was approved by the government, a report by The International Counsel of Scientific Associations for UNESCO in 1999 argued that the vibrations might trigger a landslide. nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0415_020415_machu.htmlProponents of the plan argued it would reduce pollution, increase visitation to the site, and provide a safer route for travelers (www.unwire.org/archives/search.asp?q=machu); some (including the chief archeologist at the time) also said the threat of a landslide was not as serious as many thought. seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002988715_machupicchu12.htmlCritics felt the cable car would compromise Machu Picchu’s natural beauty and feared the effects of increased visitation. After UNESCO threatened to place Machu Picchu on its list of endangered sites (www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N19208961.htm) and The World Monuments Watch temporarily included Machu Picchu on their list of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the World, (www.frommers.com/destinations/machupicchu/2878027654.html)Peruvian officials decided against the construction. Some are still skeptical, however. Even though President Alejandro Toledo pledged to safeguard the site at his inauguration in 2001, he has not entirely opposed construction. nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0415_020415_machu.htmlThis string of events drew even more attention to the site and fueled safeguarding efforts. Peru has received money from environmental and preservation groups, as well as foreign governments. In one instance, Finland traded Peru's outstanding debt for a conservation plan called Programa Machu Picchu. www.frommers.com/destinations/machupicchu/2878027654.htmlIntroduced to improve administration of the site, establish strategies for protecting the environment and the town of Aguas Calientes, the program has already implemented fire-prevention and waste-management plans. www.sacredland.org/world_sites_pages/M_Picchu.htmlPeru's National Institute of Culture created a ten-year master plan, geared to "sustainable tourism." At least for now, it seems preservation of the site, rather than development, is the goal.Access is now restricted to 500 visitors per day, and the site is closed for one month every year day. www.msn.com/id/12115727/site/newsweek/The entrance fee was increased from U.S. $17 to $50, and hikers must trek with a registered guide. nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/04/0415_020415_machu.htmlFor those wishing to help preserve the site, there are a number of resources. Some websites offer updates on preservation efforts. For example, sacredland.org lists tips on how to be a responsible traveler on its “Ethics of Visiting Sacred Sites” page (www.sacredland.org/resources/ethics.html).Websites offering sustainable and responsible travel packages includewww.responsibletravel.com/Trip/Trip101150.htmwww.andeanlife.com/responsible_tourism.htmTransitionsabroad.com lists additional resources for responsible travel to the area: www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0511/saving_machu_picchu.shtml