Peru -- Hot Debate Rages Over Machu Picchu Facilities

AGUAS CALIENTES, Peru - Some Machu Picchu visitors, mostly young backpackers, make a four-day trek from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes along the ancient Inca Trail, believed to be an old supply route, without so much as a clean hotel room along the way.

But most visitors arrive on the train that leaves once a day from Cuzco and takes 3 1/2 hours to get to Aguas Calientes, a dismal village of trinket vendors with two tiny hotels at the base of Machu Picchu's mountain - and where development companies are now proposing the five-star riverside hotel.

It would offer an alternative to the shabby, officially sanctioned hotel at the ruins themselves, a 32-room functional property where rooms go for $200 a night or more.

Limited space and the high price tag mean that most visitors must head back in three or four hours to take the only return train back to Cuzco.

"The infrastructure we now have is pathetic for a site as important as Machu Picchu," said Gustavo Caillaux, head of Peru's privatization committee.

"We understand our responsibility to protect Machu Picchu for the world, but I think we've got to be reasonable. It's time we make it easier and more comfortable to experience Machu Picchu."

Secrets to discover

The issue is so fiery in part because scholars still know so little about Machu Picchu, or "old peak" in the Quechua language.

It remains one of the best clues to understanding the Inca empire that ruled a domain that extended north through modern Colombia and south to Argentina and Chile before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.

At first glance, the Inca city 8,000 feet in the clouds, surrounded by vertical cliffs covered with green trees and bright orchids, seems like a medieval citadel, constructed ingeniously with a system that made many of its buildings earthquake proof.

Some archaeologists believe it dates back to the rule of the Inca King Pachacutec in the early 15th century, but solid information is so scarce that even that is in dispute. Some academics trace Machu Picchu to pre-Inca times.

Even more mysterious is when and why it was abandoned, perhaps sometime in the mid-17th century.

More about economics

In overwhelmingly poor Peru, where tourism is the second-largest generator of foreign currency, Machu Picchu has recently become more about economics than science.

In the 1980s, helicopters were used to fly some visitors directly into the heart of the site, after former president Alan Garcia authorized knocking down a large stone in Machu Picchu's central square to make room for a landing pad.

Although helicopters must now land 20 minutes away, the decline of guerrilla activity and newfound fame generated by books like the best-selling "The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure" suggesting that Machu Picchu is a source of mystic energy have helped create a tourism bonanza.

More than 334,500 people visited the ruins last year, almost four times the number in 1991.

Erosion and experience

Opponents say the new tourism plan would cause further erosion, adding that not enough studies have been done on the effects that vibrations from the cable car could have in a region prone to rock slides and mudslides.

Critics argue further that the cable car and one of its towers, visible from several points within the ruins, would destroy the Machu Picchu experience.

"You'll be walking around the Temple of the Sun, and suddenly you'll see a big cable car coming toward the ruins - it shatters the spell of Machu Picchu," said David Ugarte Vega, an anthropologist at the National University of Cuzco. "We can already see that happening through an excess of visitors. Machu Picchu is losing its magic."

"Come on, we're not talking about building a shopping mall," Caillaux protested. "Even the Great Wall of China has a cable car!"