A Chilean in Marcahuasi

... a meeting in Marcahuasi isn't by chance, your opinion, and mine. At these heights it was a reality ...

In September 1996 we went up to Marcahuasi with a group of students, some with a yearning to know the place, and others to be far away from the classroom. We left Lima late, and it was late when we arrived at the mountain. When the rays of the sun bid goodbye to the plateau the hut waited for us. One by one we were arriving with the approval and with the welcome of the imposing monument of humanity...
An arrival never to forget. The cold and the night arrived together to this place ... and further a sole visitor was happy to see us. I don't know if Marcahuasi arranged that meeting with him, but more likely that he was in a position ready to leave, because he only had a small case and light clothes ...

-Haven't your friends arrived yet? - I asked him.

No ... he was silent for a moment, to say to me: "I'm Patricio Marambio Torres, they call me "Pato", and I'm Chilean, I work in an agency in Miami..." The silence returned, and with a sparkle in his eyes he continued, saying: "While in Miami I saw a video of this place by chance, and it had such an effect on me that I said to myself I had to see this place. And here I am ...!"

The blanket of the night wrapped us and the emotion of the Chilean continued: "I had the luck to be commissioned to undertake some photography work in Machu Picchu, and the first thing I did when I arrived in Lima was to speak with a friend; but since he wasn't able to accompany me I came alone, and here I am beside this monument that enchanted me and perhaps more besides ..."


Patricio "Pato" (with the beard) together with the students in a hut of the fortress.

Forgetting everything that the long walk gave us, and what the Chilean said and did, how did Marcahuasi take control of him? - Of course it wasn't just with him what happened ... confirmed once more when Marcahuasi traps you and enchants you, and makes you prisoner of its mysteries. Those of us who listened to the Chilean we said "You are a pure Marcahuasino" and it only remained for us to invite him to share a light evening meal, a small bonfire for the weather, the fireside chat of tourists and good friends. The night didn't matter, nor the cold, to speak of politics, religion, philosophy, the events of the time, and the most important was Marcahuasi and its petrified world. If here at these heights Mariano Ignacio Prado, president of Perú, and Anibal Pinto, president of Chile, had met I swear that the "War of the Pacific" of 1879 would never have happened!

A meeting in Marcahuasi so that we all speak the same language. The cold, the wind and the sun also ...

The next day after a breakfast-lunch we presented ourselves to honour the monument of humanity ... everything that we say of it will be little or nothing, with its fixed look to infinity and its shout that the sky hears, being the silent accomplice of the mystery! "Pato" approached me and said: "well, ... I like how you describe that personality, you don't pigeonhole people, you let them know everything and allow the tourist to choose what they want to believe ... just permit me to continue with your group". With every encounter with the forms, and the crags, the admiration of the Chilean grew; the dialog was brief yet bewitched, because ... His camera operated every minute, and committed him with each click to return and to spread more about Marcahuasi, to help the community of San Pedro de Casta. The sacred mountain gace him a mission to fulfill; one more foreigner committed to the mountain.


The fortress was one of the places that enchanted the "pato", here you see him in the upper part

It was four o'clock in the afternoon when we returned and contemplating once more the lake of Cachu Cachu, he met with his friend who had come looking for him - we said goodbye with the thanks that Marcahuasi gives and with the promise to return and meet again. I'm convinced that Marcahuasi give s and takes everything from you, and also from those mystical experiences en every post that I write I will share with you. Not much time had passed and I hadn't returned to Marcahuasi, when I found out about a tragedy, the plane coming from Miami to Lima, somewhere around Huacho, had disappeared into the sea. In that plane returned Pedro Marambio Torres, the Chilean that I met in Marcahuasi. Later some family member of his called me to let me know of the tragedy and that Pato spoke to them a lot about me, that he came to Lima to meet with me so we could go to the sacred mountain ...

In this space that produces pain, I tried to pass on my condolences ... to listen with a strong rotund voice "HE HASN'T DIED, HE'S JUST GONE MISSING". Every time that I go up to the plateau, I go with the hope of meeting, together with the Mayoralas in the fortress, ... The friends that give Marcahuasi, they live the time that you live ... Where you are "Pato", choose the path of "kiska kumo" or "Portachuelo" and arrive like that September; again excited and enchanted by Marcahuasi. And if I'm not here, someone will be there waiting for you.

"Pato" ... if this truth didn't satisfy your anxiety, i'm really sorry.
Perhaps I didn't know how to express this mystery and it confused me.
And everything goes ...

[Read the original blog post (in Spanish)]

Next part : Signs and symbols of Marcahuasi.

Photos : John Ysrael Guevara