“The old orchid hunter lay back on his pillow, his body limp with the effort of talking so long. He coughed and a ripple of pain ran through the wasted length of him beneath the covers. Still his eyes burned unwaveringly bright with the memory of the places he had seen and the things he had done, bright with the unquenchable passion for the life he would never suffer or enjoy again.
An agreement signed Friday between Yale University and Peru’s National University of San Antonio Abad in Cusco will usher the return of thousands of artifacts to Cusco a century after Hiram Bingham removed them from Machu Picchu, the celebrated “lost city” of the Inca.
[Originally published November 20, 2010] Starting in early 2011, Yale University will begin to return all 46,632 fragments and artifacts taken from Machu Picchu nearly a century ago by American explorer Hiram Bingham, President Alan García announced late Friday.
[Originally published September 10, 2010] Peru’s Congress voted unanimously Thursday in support of building a new access road to Machu Picchu.
In a 75-0 vote, lawmakers declared that paving the narrow dirt roads connecting the towns of Ollantaytambo, Santa María and Santa Teresa, located northwest of Machu Picchu, is “a public necessity and a priority of national interest.”
[Originally published September 7, 2010] UNESCO and Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC) once again find themselves at odds with Peru’s private tourism sector over how many tourists should be allowed to enter Machu Picchu.
