A Machu Picchu adventure

Experiencing the mystery of God, the God of mysteries, and the God of surprises

By Mike O’Kane
March/April 2008

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In mid-January of 2008, my nephew Jaime Barry, a pilot with Air Canada, offered his old uncle an adventure of a lifetime—a trip to the lost city of the Incas. It was special to be going with Jaime, the youngest of my sister’s children, as he and I had bonded years ago. Within a week we were in the air, flying to Peru.

Embarking on an adventure of a lifetime, Mike O’Kane and his nephew Jaime Barry arrive at Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas.

As a high-school student, our history classes gave us a brief look at our western continents and its inhabitants. Mission assignments in the early 1970s, afforded me the opportunity to visit a few of the ancient civilizations of Central and South America: Aztec ruins and sites in Mexico and Guatemala, and Mayan sites in Colombia. Of course I had read of the Inca civilization and viewed photos of Machu Picchu. Yet none of these experiences prepared me for what I was about to see.

After a brief stop in Lima we flew to Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incas. We took a day here to rest and adjust to both the climate and the altitude. Our adventure then continued with a train ride through parts of the Sacred Valley to the village of Aguas Calientes, the last stop before Machu Picchu. At 6:00 a.m. the following morning we were on the first bus up into the cloudy heights, arriving before daybreak. Jaime had pushed and pulled the old man several thousand feet up the old Incan trail, and we both collapsed from fatigue and lack of oxygen.

Rain and heavy fog shrouded Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains. Then, as if for our eyes alone, the rain stopped and the clouds dissipated. Words fail to describe the majesty of the vision that appeared before us. My emotions took control, my body shook with excitement and I cried. The unimaginable beauty of this magical Incan city proclaimed the presence of the hand of God in this human creation. And to complete the vision, the huge mountain rising above the city shouted God’s greatness. And to think that this lost city of the Incan Empire was built in 1450 at the height of the Incan Empire. Pachacuti, their great leader built Machu Picchu to honour the Incan gods and as a spiritual retreat.

I felt as if I was enshrouded in the Divine. A long moment of profound silence was followed by our exclamations of unbelief at what lay before us. In the days that followed, we visited other ruins in Ollantaytambo and Cuzco, marvelling at the ingenuity, the intelligence and the master plan of these majestic creations.

It took the genius and the intelligence of the Incan King Pachacuti and his advisers to visualize, plan and build Machu Picchu and its adjoining cities high in these Andean mountains. More than 10,000 labourers crafted the huge blocks of stone and transported them up the mountain to build these cities. The God of mystery was certainly evidenced in the finished product, but what of the sweat, the bloodletting, and the cost in human tragedy—the God of mysteries must also have been present in all of this.

Pachacuti’s empire of more than 12 million citizens included Ecuador, Peru, and parts of Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Argentina. From its capital of Cuzco, 10,000 miles of highway served as a conduit for economic, political and religious governing control. It was an empire that excelled in architecture, engineering and medicine. Even so, the Empire of this King, whom historians describe as being another Alexander the Great or Napoleon Bonaparte, disintegrated within 300 years. The Inca people began as a tribe in the Cuzco area in the 12th century. Pachacuti as King began to expand his empire in the early 13th century. This Empire of the Gods fell under the weight of internal strife, warfare, a smallpox epidemic, and the Christian conquistadores from Spain.

I thought of the mystical mountain that formed a backdrop to Machu Picchu, that spoke of God’s marvellous act of creation, and the millions of years in which God’s evolutionary plan unfolded, and still unfolds.

Again there were questions, questions, to which the God of mystery, the immanent God, provides only surprises. The world of the Incas exists today only in museums and history books. So, what of the present?

Descendants of the Incas

In our travels we encountered the local Quechua people, direct descendants of the Incas. Their lot in life is screaming poverty and hardship, deprived of the most menial amenities that we take for granted. Infant mortality hovers above 60 percent. Is their human value less than mine? Is the God of mystery and love closer to me and to our world of consumerism than to them? Is God’s Divine presence locked in the scandal of their grinding poverty, crying out to the world for resurrection?

And then we met Dona Sonia Newhouse, an English woman who came to Peru in 2002,when she was 76 years of age. She came to see the wonder of Machu Picchu, but also to make Peru her home. Like most foreign tourists she marvelled at the creative majesty that lay in these ancient ruins; and no doubt pondered the genius and intelligence behind its creation. But she looked for it as well in the lives of the Quechua people and their dismal lot in life. Their reality was one of little apparent hope, a complacent acceptance of their lost world. And yet she did discover courageous leaders determined to uplift their brothers and sisters, but sadly lacking resources. Sonia devoted her first year to studying the language, then moved to Ollantaytambo, opening her little café, Hearts, in the main square of the town. She then began to work with the women leaders of the Quechua community. Their projects include health, nutrition and education.

Now in her mid-80s, Sonia lives on her farm outside of Ollantaytambo where she has a medical clinic and a small school. Hearts Café not only serves delicious lunches to tourists, but enlists young volunteers from all over the world to participate in Sonia’s mission with the Quechua people. Sharing her vision, these young trekkers give of their resources, skills, and time, in teaching, nursing, agronomy, and community development. In 2007 the Living Heart NGO was established. The God of mystery or the mysteries of God led Dona Sonia and her band of followers to work alongside the Quechua people to build anew their Machu Picchu.

And so the Divine Plan continues to unfold, beyond our human comprehension. Thanks Jaime for an unforgettable adventure, another deep bonding, and a spiritual experience shrouded in the surprises of God.

Mike O’Kane is a former Scarboro missionary to Brazil. He is retired and lives with his wife Carol in Hillsdale, Ontario, where they run a small Bed & Breakfast.

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