In The Footsteps of the Incas An Iowa Regents' Study Abroad/Service Learning Program in About this book Images were provided by Bart Fruechte, Nancy T. Guthrie, and Trevor Nelson.

Cover Photo: The of the Incas Inside Cover: Iowa Regents students at , June 2008 In the Footsteps of the Incas

The study abroad program "In the Footsteps of the Incas" provides students at the Iowa Regents' universities with the opportunity to study Spanish and engage with communities through service work in and around , Peru - the original Inca capital.

Formerly a program sponsored by Iowa State University and located at a number of sites in Chile and Bolivia, it was first offered by the Iowa Regents' Universities in Summer 2008 at its new location in Cusco. The city, nicknamed the "navel" (umbiligo in Spanish) of the , is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a popular destination for tourists due, in part, to its proximity to Machu Picchu. The program involves numerous cultural activities including visits to sites of archeological interest such as Machu Pichuu.

Lasting approximately eight weeks, students are enrolled in Spanish classes at the Centro Bartolome de las Casas, a highly respected Andean studies institute. Additionally, students take a Service-Learning course that in 2008 was taught by Nancy T. Guthrie. During their stay in Peru, participants are housed with Peruvian families receiving three meals per day.

1 Cusco

Cusco is a beautiful city riddled with contrasts between the indigenous styles and the modern western world. The first thing that hits the newly arrived visitor to Cusco is the Inca Walls; enormous granite blocks carved to fit together perfectly without the aid of mortar beds. Many of the walls were simply built upon during the construction of a new Spanish city. It is a tribute to the Incas that their anti-seismic design has survived the test of time while the Spanish colonial architecture has been rebuilt several times following a wave of earthquakes that have hit the city. Located at an altitude of 11,000 ft about sea level, visitors from lower altitudes will immediately notice the thin clear mountain air and will need to acclimatize prior to serious trekking.

The city has a long and interesting history dating back to 1200AD and linked to the first Inca ruler, Manco Capac; however, the city saw its expansion in the 15th century under the rule of Inca Pachacutec, who led a drive that spread the boundaries of the Inca empire as far south as Chile and Argentina, and north to include Ecuador and Colombia. This rapid expansion abruptly ended with the arrival of the Spanish led by Francisco Pizarro who, following the murder of the Inca Atahaulpa in , marched into Cusco in 1534 and added it definitively to the realms of the Spanish King, Charles V.

http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/destinations/cusco/index.html

2 Cusco 3 4 Plaza des Armas Plaza des Armas 5 6 7 8 Koricancha houses an Inca sun temple 9 Sacsayhuaman

The origins of Sacsayhuaman (the Inca fortress overlooking Cusco) are uncertain, but the fortress is generally attributed to the period of Inca , the man who essentially founded the Inca Empire. The main ramparts consist of three massive parallel walls zigzagging together for some 400m, designed to make any attacker expose his flanks. The massive blocks, the largest being 8.5m high and weighing nearly 300 tons, are fitted together with absolute perfection. The chronicler Cieza de Leon writing in the 1550s, thought that some 20,000 men had been involved in its construction: 4,000 men cutting blocks from the quarries; 6,000 dragging them on rollers to the site; and anther 10,000 working on finishing and fitting them into position.

Sacsayhuaman played an important part in the final defeat of the Inca Empire by the Spanish. Pizarro's party entered Cusco unopposed in 1533 and lived there securely for more than two years before finally being caught unprepared by the rebellion of Manco Inca in 1536. After weeks under siege in Cusco, the Spanish broke out and charged into the surrounding hills to the northwest of the city. They then doubled back to capture the rocky outcrop opposite the fortress. Finally, despite overwhelming odds, the Spanish managed to recapture the fortress.

http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/destinations/cusco/sacsayhuaman.html

10 The rocky outcrop viewed from the fortress 11 12 Views of Sacsayhuaman

Service Learning

Service-learning is the learning that takes place from community service. It involves writing journals, reading, and group reflection. Working with ProPeru, a non-profit organization with excellent community contacts, students are placed in genuine reciprocal relationships that benefit both the local community and student participants. Students in 2008 were involved in construction activities (digging holes for school latrines and construction of ceramic stoves that reduced wood use and smoke pollution within residences), education, and healthcare.

Unlike traditional classroom-based education, service-learning places students in the heart of communities, dealing with issues and challenges that confront members of that community. It is by placing this experiential learning in context that students better understand the socio-cultural background of these communities and are provided with a structured means to explore their own feelings and attitudes to what they are able to observe.

Service-learning provides an opportunity to glimpse a society as it really is and not the picture postcard understanding that many tourists come away with. It can be emotionally and intellectually challenging, but from this experience students begin to better understand a community, and just as important, themselves.

14 15 16 Building fuel-efficient wood burning stoves 17 18 19 20

Pisac

PISAC RUINS A vital Inca road once snaked its way up the canyon that enters the Urubamba Valley at Pisac. The citadel at the entrance to this gorge, now in ruins, controlled a route that connected the Inca Empire with Paucartambo, on the border of the eastern jungles. Set high above a valley floor patch-worked by patterned fields and rimmed by vast terracing, the stonework and panoramas at Pisac's Inca citadel are magnificent. Terraces, water ducts, and steps have been cut out of solid rock and, in the upper sector of the ruins, the main Sun Temple is equal of anything at Machu Picchu. Above the temple lie still more ruins, mostly unexcavated, and among the higher crevices and rocky overhangs several ancient burial sites are hidden.

http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/destinations/cusco/pisac.html

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The town is located at the foot of some spectacular Inca ruins that protected the strategic entrance to the lower Urubamba Valley. The temple area is at the top of steep terracing that helped to provide excellent defenses. Stone used for these buildings was brought from a quarry high up on the opposite side of the - an incredible feat involving the efforts of thousands of workers.

After Manco Inca was defeated by the Spanish at Sacsayhuaman following the unsuccessful (1536), he retreated to Ollantaytambo. Francisco Pizarro's younger brother Hernando led a force of 70 cavalry, 30 foot soldiers, and a large contingent of natives to capture Manco Inca. The Inca's forces, joined by neighboring jungle tribes, rained down showers of arrows, spears, and rocks upon the unfortunate Spanish troops. In an intelligent move, the Ina's flooded the plains below their stronghold, making it difficult for the horses to maneuver. Hernando, uncharacteristically, ordered a hasty retreat. Ollantaytambo became the only place ever to have resisted an attack from the Spanish; however, their victory was short-lived as the Spanish returned with four times their previous force. Manco Inca retreated to his jungle stronghold in Vicabamba, and Ollantaytambo fell into the hands of the Spanish.

http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/destinations/cusco/ollantaytambo.html

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31 32 Machu Picchu

Hiram Bingham, a Yale University professor, discovered Machu Picchu in 1911. He believed it to be the lost city of Vilcabamba, the Inca's last stronghold. This belief went unchallenged until 1964 when the ruins of Vicabamba were found elsewhere in the jungle. A more recent view suggests that the many trails leading to Machu Picchu tend to support the theory of archaeologist J.H Rowe who postulated that Machu Picchu was simply built as a "royal estate" for the Inca Pachacutec and populated by his own ayllu or family clam. The location was probably chosen for its unique position surrounded by the jungle and important mountains of Salkantay, Pumasillo, and Veronica, and overlooking the Vicanota River, a position which in the Inca religion would have been considered sacred. In fact, the Inca Trail leading to Machu Picchu may well have been considered not just a road but a route of pilgrimage to this sacred center.

Machu Picchu could also have served several secondary purposes, including a look-out post guarding the route to Cusco from Antisuyo or Amazon Basin or as a protected source of the coca used in every aspect of Inca religion including in sacrifice, divination, and medicine. Evidence suggest, that Machu Picchu, with its 200 or so buildings , had a permanent population of about 1000 people. http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/destinations/machupicchu/ruins.html

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38 39 40 41 Views of Peru

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44 45 46 47 48 Lima

Footsteps of the Incas

The 2008 Program