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New bridge
gives backpackers cheap backdoor entry to Machu Picchu
ruins
A village near Peru's famed Machu Picchu ruins has built
a bridge over the turbulent Vilcanota River, opening a
cheap backdoor route for adventurous, cash-strapped
backpackers.
The bridge was inaugurated Saturday in the village of
Santa Teresa despite the objections of government
cultural experts, who fear increased tourism could
threaten the UNESCO World Heritage site as hostels and
restaurants spring up to serve travelers.
They also say increased tourism could imperil rare flora
and fauna in the highland jungle surrounding the Inca
ruins that are dramatically perched on a ridge 500
kilometers (300 miles) southeast of Lima.
But authorities in Santa Teresa, less than 20 kilometers
(10 miles) from the base of the mountain on which Machu
Picchu was built, are hoping the bridge will help the
local economy get a piece of the tourism pie. Travelers
would have to spend the night in the village before
continuing on to Machu Picchu.
The site, a complex of stone buildings built by the Inca
empire that controlled the area when the Spanish
conquistadors arrived in Peru in 1532, has been
reachable until now only by train from Cuzco.
The new route targets thrifty backpackers who want to
avoid the pricey train tickets, which start at US$73
(€55) and run as high as US$547 (€410) for luxury
service. The trains are operated by a British-Peruvian
company that has a concession from the state.
The new route involves an eight-hour bus ride through
avalanche country, along narrow, twisting dirt roads
bordering deep precipices. From Santa Teresa, travelers
cross the bridge to catch rides on trucks to a
hydroelectric plant, then hike 11 kilometers (seven
miles) along railroad tracks to reach Aguas Calientes,
down the mountain from Machu Picchu.
The total cost: Less than US$10 (€7.50), though prices
are informal and vary.
New
Bridge at Ancient Incan Citadel and World Heritage Site
was Inaugurated.
The 80-metre long Carrilluchayoc bridge spans the
Vilcanota River at the base of Machu Picchu and will
connect the village of Santa Teresa with the road up the
peak, lessening the time it will take tourists to reach
the World Heritage site.
Locals have welcomed the bridge for opening their remote
province to commerce and tourism. Instead of a
treacherous 15-hour drive over mountain passes farmers
can truck coffee and fruit to
Cuzco in just three hours.
Others are concerned about how the 260-foot-long bridge
will affect the 15th century Inca citadel, a World
Heritage site. UNESCO issued a warning in 2004 about
degradation of the site.
To some people, the nearly completed Carilluchayoc
Bridge project in Peru, which would connect the small
village of Santa Teresa to Machu Picchu, the 15th
century Inca citadel, is a bridge too far.
Fredia Castro, the mayor of the Convención province,
where Santa Teresa is, believes it will bring tourist
revenue to the 200,000 residents of the province, who
are as much as a 15-hour drive from Machu Picchu, a
World Heritage site. Others are concerned about how the
260-foot-long bridge will affect the archaeological
ruins, particularly since Unesco issued a warning in
2004 about degradation of the site. Now the opening of
the bridge appears to be stalled.
“The situation with the bridge is very controversial and
involves a number of different government
organizations,” said Elisabeth Hakim, North American
markets coordinator for PromPeru, a government
commission responsible for promoting Peru.
With around 2,500 visitors a day, some believe there are
already too many tourists roaming around Machu Picchu
destroying not just the ruins, but also the flora and
fauna. They say the bridge could double that number of
daily visitors and further endanger the site.
The easiest and fastest way to reach Machu Picchu from
the city of Cuzco is by taking the PeruRail train,
operated by Orient-Express Hotels. The starting price of
a one-way ticket is $46. With the bridge, the cost of a
bus trip from Cuzco would be the equivalent of about $4.
“It is still going to be a long way to go by bus,” said
Luca Newbold, managing director of Llama Travel, which
specializes in trips to Peru. “It will still take seven
or eight hours versus three and a half on the train. It
does not ease access that much, and I can only see a
small number of people choosing that option.”
Nuria Sanz, an official of Unesco’s World Heritage
Center, said a mission will go to Machu Picchu in April
to monitor the state of conservation and that local,
regional and national experts also planned to examine
the situation.
Victoria Legg, a spokeswoman for Orient-Express, which
will face new competition on transport to the area if
the bridge is opened, said: “Our main priority is that
the site is managed and preserved for the people of Peru
and for international visitors for centuries to come.”
A Bridge
stirs the waters in Machu Picchu
In the year that Peru is trying to
get Machu Picchu voted one of the
new Seven Wonders of the World,
there are growing tensions over the country's greatest
tourist attraction.
February 1,
2007. Source:
BBC News,
Peru by Dan Collyns
A former mayor has built a bridge which creates a new
route to the World Heritage site, threatening to bring
more tourists and, some say, open up a new route for
drug traffickers.
The 80-metre long Carilluchayoc bridge, which crosses
the Vilcanota river near the base of the 15th-Century
Inca citadel, is to be inaugurated in February, despite
a court order prohibiting its construction and protests
from the government and environmentalists.
There is concern that - with around 2,500 visitors a day
- there are already too many tourists tramping around
the ruins. The UN's cultural division, Unesco, is due to
inspect the site this year to decide whether it should
be classed as an endangered heritage site.
But the former mayor of La Convencion province, Fedia
Castro, whose term ended recently, says the village of
Santa Teresa needs the bridge to end its isolation and
bring commerce and tourism.
The villagers currently have to undertake a 15-hour
journey along treacherous roads to take their
agricultural produce to market in the regional capital,
Cuzco. The bridge will allow them to take it by lorry in
just three hours.
'Profit-orientated'
The bridge has strong
support in La Convencion province and across the region
from people who believe the inhabitants of Santa Teresa
should be able to benefit from Cuzco region's booming
tourism industry.
The companies... are thinking of profit. My task is to
give to the next generation the opportunity to continue
seeing this wonder for the centuries to come
David Ugarte
Cusco National Cultural Institute
But there are others who have voiced concern,
particularly those charged with protecting Peru's
archaeological and cultural heritage.
The director of Cuzco's National Cultural Institute,
David Ugarte, says he is not opposed to the bridge in
principle but he is worried about the potential increase
in tourism.
"We don't deny that they need a proper road for this
area, but the mayor's slogan that it's 'the bridge or
death' lacks credibility and seriousness," he says.
Mr Ugarte says the site was not designed for the number
of tourists who now visit it and could not sustain more.
"The companies... are thinking of profit. My task is to
give to the next generation the opportunity to continue
seeing this wonder for the centuries to come," he says.
"The tourism companies take around 2,500 people up there
every day. They want to take 5,000 a day or more. If
that happens, in 10 years' time there will be no longer
be a Machu Picchu. It's not only part of our heritage,
it's part of humanity's."
'Proper management'
There is currently only one route to Machu Picchu from
the city of Cuzco and that is by train. PeruRail, which
is owned by the British company Orient Express Hotels
has had a monopoly on transport through the Sacred
Valley since 1999. Tourists can pay between $70 (£35)
and $450 for a return trip.
The bridge is due to be completed in February
But when the Carilluchayoc bridge is completed,
backpackers will be able to take a $4 bus ride to the
foot of the site using a different route.
Patricio Zucconi, who manages the Orient Express-run
Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge Hotel, says with proper
management the site could sustain many more tourists.
He says the Inca ruins simply need more than one
entrance and exit point and he estimates as many as
4,000 visitors could come and go every day.
"The problem is the way Machu Picchu is managed. There
are too many state bodies in charge of it," he says.
Mr Zucconi warns without proper controls on the bridge,
the flora and fauna in the national park which surrounds
the ruins will suffer because of the increased number of
tours.
But Orient Express Hotels has angered some local
leaders.
"They just take all the money out of the region," says
the newly-elected Regional President of Cusco, Hugo
Gonzales.
"The constitution of Peru prohibits monopolies. PeruRail
has a monopoly because 92% of the tourists who visit
Machu Picchu go by the railway."
Mr Gonzales says he fully supports the building of the
bridge but the company has opposed it because it wants
to hold on to its monopoly on the rail route.
More visitors
The problem dates back to 1998 when the old village of
Santa Teresa, located near the railway, was destroyed in
a landslide. The villagers were forced to relocate when
the government refused to rebuild it.
Despite its opposition to the bridge, the government has
done nothing to prevent its building.
Officials have said the bridge will provide a new route
for cocaine traffickers in La Convencion province, which
is under a state of emergency because of its coca
production.
Mr Gonzales acknowledges there may be a drug-trafficking
problem but says without the bridge the villagers are
forced to carry their produce by foot for miles.
"It's not acceptable that there are big profits for the
owners of the railway line and hotels, yet five minutes
from Cuszo we have extreme poverty," he said.
A spokeswoman for Orient Express Hotels, Yasmine Martin,
says her company rescued the site from mismanagement by
the regional authorities and provides community
projects, employment and rubbish collection.
"We provide a subsidised train service for the local
people twice a day at the cost of $800,000 a year," she
says. " Show me the company which offers even $10,000
year for the local population"
With the imminent opening of the bridge there is every
indication that 2007 will bring more visitors to Machu
Picchu.
As the various companies and state bodies struggle for
dominion over this once-lost city, it seems that
ultimately no-one wants to kill the goose which lays the
golden egg.
Fears for
Machu Picchu as mayor builds easy-access bridge
Move to help local economy could bring more visitors and
aid cocaine smuggling
A new road bridge to the base of the mountain citadel
will cut journey times to the Unesco-listed site but has
heightened fears of it being swamped by backpackers.
December 27, 2006. Source:
The
Guardian by Rory Carroll in Cuzco
A Peruvian mayor has built a bridge leading to
Machu Picchu, Peru's
Inca citadel, despite warnings it will wreck the
archaeological gem and open a route for drug smugglers.
The 80-metre (260ft) long bridge over the Vilcanota
river is due to open this week in defiance of a court
order and protests from the government, which fears
hordes of backpackers will swamp the site.
The UN conservation agency Unesco is due in February to
inspect the mountaintop ruins, a
world heritage
site deep in the Andean jungle, amid concern that
there are already too many visitors. But Fedia Castro,
mayor of Convención province, said the bridge would end
her community's isolation and give tourists a cheaper
option than a train which, until now, had a monopoly on
transport through the Sacred Valley. "It's almost ready,
so they can't stop it," she said.
Locals have welcomed the bridge for opening their remote
province to commerce and tourism. Instead of a
treacherous 15-hour drive over mountain passes farmers
can truck coffee and fruit to
Cuzco in just three hours.
The bridge, 12 miles from Machu Picchu at the town of
Santa Theresa, replaces one washed away in a 1998 flood
but which the government refused to rebuild. "We begged
and shouted but they ignored us," said Ms Castro. The
municipal and provincial authorities of Convención
started building in January, using £570,000 of public
funds. The final touches are being put in place.
The National Institute of Natural Resources filed a
criminal complaint against Ms Castro last month after
she ignored a court injunction demanding a halt to
construction. Deputy tourism minister Alfonso Salcedo
called the mayor reckless: "This we will not allow."
Officials also expressed alarm that Convención, which is
under a state of emergency because of its coca
production, could smuggle cocaine in the fruit and
coffee trucks crossing the bridge. Peru is the world's
second largest cocaine producer after Colombia.
The tourism ministry did not reply to queries last week
about what, if anything, would be done to stop the
bridge.
Since Peru's guerrilla war ended in the 1990s the number
of visitors to Machu Picchu, 310 miles south of the
capital, Lima, has soared to more than 4,000 tramping
around the stone citadel daily.
Conservationists warned that the ruins were under stress
and that wildlife along the Inca trail was disappearing,
prompting the government to limit the number of visitors
to 2,500 daily. Unesco is reportedly considering naming
it an endangered heritage site.
Ms Castro said other Inca sites nearby could draw many
of the tourists and relieve pressure on Machu Picchu, a
secret city missed by the conquistadors and unknown to
the outside world until an explorer stumbled across it
in 1911.
Conservation concern, she said, was a red herring to
protect the monopoly of PeruRail, part of Orient Express
Hotels, which has operated the line since 1999. Every
day hundreds of foreigners pay from £33 to £230,
depending on how much luxury they want, for a return
trip. With the bridge backpackers can take a £2.30 bus
ride to the foot of the site.
The mayor alleged, but offered no proof, that three
executives offered her a £255,000 bribe in 2003 to
forget the bridge. A PeruRail spokesman, Gonzolo Rojas,
rejected the claim.
Ms Castro lost her post in elections last month and is
due to step down next week. She has disputed the
election result. The new mayor has supported the bridge.
A bridge to
Machu Picchu? Peruvian mayor vows to keep building one
despite court order
November 10, 2006. Source:
Associated Press
LIMA, Peru — A local
Peruvian mayor defended her decision to defy a court
order and continue construction of a bridge that would
create an alternate route to the mountaintop
Inca ruins at Machu
Picchu.
"I am willing to go to jail," Fredia Castro, mayor of
Convencion province, told reporters in Lima. She has
been under intense fire from the central government,
which fears a completed bridge spanning the Vilcanota
River, 12 miles northwest of the ruins, could land
Peru's biggest tourist destination on UNESCO's list of
endangered World Heritage sites.
Castro argued the bridge would open her province, home
to more than 200,000 residents, to tourism. She said it
also would break the "monopoly" of PeruRail, owned by
the Bermuda-based Orient Express Hotels Ltd., which has
operated train service — the only mass transit available
— to the archaeological site since 1999.
Machu Picchu
not on 'UNESCO's World Heritage in Danger' list
July 19, 2006. Source: Living in
Peru
The
Committee of UNESCO's World Heritage Center has decided
not to include Peru's Archaeological Park of Machu
Picchu in the "World Heritage in Danger" list.
Nevertheless, the center will closely follow the
initiatives of the Peruvian State for its preservation
of the Incan city, because it disregarded UNESCO's
recommendations in the last three years.
One of the bigger problems the archaeological park faces
is the construction of the Carrilluchayoc bridge, which
will connect the district of Santa Teresa with the
ancient site. According to the Law of Protected Areas
and the Law of Cultural Heritage, constructions in this
area are prohibited.
However, the municipalities of Santa Teresa and the
province of La Convención continue with the viaduct's
construction, disregarding a judicial resolution issued
by the Penal Court of Urubamba to immediately suspend
all works.
Local authorities reject concerns that the bridge harms
Machu Picchu's sanctity and untouchable status but
improve the infrastructure for transporting agricultural
products of Santa Teresa's farmers.
Machu Picchu threatened by bridge
Local
authorities say the bridge is needed to transport
agricultural products toward other markets
July 18, 2006. Source: Spero News.
A bridge being built
over the river Urubamba, below the archeological
site of Machu Picchu, could risk the famous
‘lost city of the Inca’ from being listed as one
of the UNESCO ‘Treasures of Humanity’.
“Such a decision
would be a hard blow for tourism” said Fernando
Astete, manager of the Machu Picchu site,
referring to the concerns expressed in a note
received from UNESCO, which says that in the
past two years, the bridge “could promote the
rise of new inhabited centers that will
contribute to the deteriorating conditions of
the site and the surrounding nature, which are
already clearly evident.”
The bridge
worksite, wanted by the administration of the
Santa Teresa district, is located eight km. from
Aguas Calientes, the village at the foot of the
mountain upon which Macchu Picchu is located.
Local authorities
say the bridge is needed to transport
agricultural products toward other markets, but
the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales
(Irena) and the Ministry of Tourism say that the
construction company has never received the
authorization to proceed and it also never
provided an environmental impact plan.
A court in
Cuzco
has already demanded the termination of the work
and sent a police patrol to prevent the bridge
form being built, despite the fact that the law
demands at least ten years in jail for those
responsible of an “attack against the cultural
treasure of the country.”
The
Carilluchayoc
Bridge, has been
inaugurated.
The
Committee of UNESCO's World Heritage Center has decided
not to include Peru's Archaeological Park of Machu
Picchu in the "World Heritage in Danger" list.
Nevertheless, the center will closely follow the
initiatives of the Peruvian State for its preservation
of the Incan city, because it disregarded UNESCO's
recommendations in the last three years.