Blandy vs Terrorism
09-19-2007, 02:18 AM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5142596.html
A boom in tourism and development endangers the fragile Incan ruins, some say
MACHU PICCHU, PERU — Daily they swarm this mystical city of the Incas where the high ridges of the Peruvian Andes fall away to meet the Amazon rain forest.
The tourists — about 2,000 each day — tramp through the 15th century mountain sanctuary, clog the paths between the stone buildings, scale fragile rock-and-sod terraces.
Now, following Machu Picchu's widely publicized designation as one of the "New 7 Wonders of the World," South America's best known archaeological site is bracing for even more visitors, while just down the mountain, new hotels and restaurants are going up to serve them. But some experts fear Machu Picchu and its surroundings will be loved to death.
"If we open up Machu Picchu to more tourism, the place will be destroyed within 10 years," said David Ugarte, a former Peruvian Culture Ministry official and a leading voice promoting conservation of the site. "We don't want to turn it into an Incan Disneyland."
Two other tourist attractions in the Americas — Chichen Itza's ruins in Mexico, which also made the "New 7 Wonders" list, and Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, which was considered for the list but did not make it — face similar pressures.
Thanks, in part, to cheap international flights and the fact that many people have more disposable income, global tourism is booming, and isolated spots once accessible to only the most stout-hearted or affluent adventurers are now just a discounted plane ride away. Tourists, however, bring more than their cameras.
Besides the wear and tear on the sites themselves, more visitors mean more hotels, restaurants, stores and an influx of workers to run them. The result is often more traffic, garbage, noise and deforestation around some of the world's most delicate ecosystems.
"Human activity has become the greatest threat of all to the world's cultural heritage, causing irreparable harm," said Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund. "The rapid rise in global tourism is bringing more and more people to often fragile and unprotected places."
In Mexico, government officials celebrated when the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza made the "New 7 Wonders" list in June after a worldwide Internet vote instigated by a Swiss adventurer, Bernard Weber. The Mexicans expect a surge in tourism.
But some experts say the site is already overcrowded. More than 1.2 million visitors trekked to the Yucatan Peninsula to visit Chichen Itza last year. Their foot traffic has eroded the stone steps of the Kulkukan pyramid, and several careless tourists have fallen off the structure and sustained serious injuries.
"Mass tourism is destructive because people act differently when they are in large groups," said Eduardo Perez, archaeological director of Chichen Itza. "It provides an anonymity which can lead to bad behavior."
Mexico lobbied to include Chichen Itza as one of the new seven wonders, as did Brazil, where the successful effort to get the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue added to the list was a national priority.
The country's telephone companies waived the cost of Internet votes cast by text message. Brazilian soccer players held up a banner appealing for votes before a match with England. And even the country's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pitched in. He climbed Corcovado Hill to don a Christ the Redeemer T-shirt and instruct Brazilians how to vote for the 100-foot-tall concrete statue of Jesus blessing the city of Rio de Janeiro with open arms.
Another site that was considered for, but did not make, the "New 7 Wonders" list, the Galapagos Islands, ranks as one of the hemisphere's most at-risk destinations.
Rising tourism to the islands has sparked massive immigration from the mainland, overfishing, and the introduction of alien plants and animals, like feral goats and weedlike blackberry bushes, that wreak havoc on the island's one-of-a-kind native species. In June, the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, put the islands, which inspired Charles Darwin to come up with the theory of evolution, on its list of endangered World Heritage sites.
Machu Picchu, built in the 1400s, perhaps as an Incan ceremonial center, was brought to the world's attention by American historian Hiram Bingham who stumbled upon the well-preserved stone huts, temples and ceremonial baths in 1911. The site was soon recognized as an architectural masterpiece.
"The Incas put together a wonderful mix of architecture, culture and nature and that's what attracts millions of people," said Mariana Mould, a Peruvian historian.
At first, only a few hardy travelers and explorers, riding mules, managed to reach the site.
Later, political upheaval, a cholera outbreak and a protracted war between government forces and Shining Path guerrillas kept tourists at bay. In 1992, for example, just 9,000 people visited Machu Picchu.
Today, the Shining Path has largely been crushed, and Peru has enjoyed several years of stability. Foreigners are flocking to Peru and Machu Picchu, where 700,000 walked through the turnstiles last year.
But sharing a misty, Machu Picchu sunrise alongside throngs of fellow travelers can take some of the magic out of the moment.
By noon on most days, the paths between the buildings are jammed with pedestrians. The air is filled with the voices of tour guides giving crash courses in Inca history in Italian, French and English. And the herds of llamas that roam the ruins at daybreak are nowhere to be seen.
"We got here at 6 a.m., and there were still crowds," said Lottie Hancock, a British tourist, as she lay on her back on one of the terrraces, taking a breather.
There are so many that each day the Peruvian government allows just 500 backpackers to start hiking the Inca trail, a 28-mile path through lush jungle and cloud forest that ends at Machu Picchu.
By late afternoon, most sightseers have descended the mountain to eat, drink and dance to traditional Inca pipe-and-drum bands in the overcrowded dormitory town of Aguas Calientes.
Still, there's no consensus on the real impact of so many visitors.
In 2001, Japanese geologists warned that due to shifts in the earth and constant foot traffic, Machu Picchu was in danger of slipping off its mountain peak. But they later backed away from their conclusion. According to UNESCO, the ruins themselves are in good shape — except, that is, for the site's principal stone shrine, the Intihuatana, which was chipped when a massive crane fell over during the unauthorized filming of a beer commercial.
The main threat, UNESCO said in a July report, comes from unchecked development in the areas surrounding the sanctuary.
For example, crowds of backpackers on the Inca Trail have degraded and sullied the path with waste.
"It's pretty bad," said Kurt Winterfield, a Utah native, after spending three days on the trail. "They may have some bathrooms, but they're pretty spread out. So they don't get used."
Once a tiny speck of a village, Aguas Calientes, just a few miles from Machu Picchu, is now an Andean Kathmandu, with hundreds of Internet cafes, bars and hotels and 4,000 permanent residents. To beat the crowds, the wake-up calls in many hotels come at 5 a.m., and within minutes, the streets are packed with groggy tourists boarding buses for the short ride to the ruins.
In it's July report, UNESCO warned about the out-of-control growth of Aguas Calientes, saying there is an "ever increasing level of risks from landslides, fires, structural failure, health threats and social crisis."
For now, the only way to approach Machu Picchu is by train from Cuzco, a journey that is.slow, crowded and expensive, limiting the number of daily visitors.
But a new bridge, built illegally and denounced by UNESCO, allows motorists to drive down a winding dirt road to within a few miles of Machu Picchu.
Many experts predict that if the road is ever paved, tourists will eschew the expensive train tickets and travel by car or bus to the site. The experts advocate placing strict limits on the numbers of daily tourists, and the nonprofit World Monuments Fund in June placed Machu Picchu on its endangered list.
But the Peruvian government will have none of it. "These attitudes are somewhat alarmist and catastrophic," Peruvian President Alan Garcia said. He pointed out that nobody is calling for caps on visitors to Notre Dame or other famous attractions.
Tourism, he said, helps to fuel the country's annual 7 percent economic growth rate. Everyone, from construction workers to the impoverished indigenous women who sell trinkets in the streets, has a stake in the tourist boom.
As he sipped a soft drink in the bar of his newly opened five-star hotel in Aguas Calientes, general manager Anibal Clavijo said he had no worries about filling the place up — even though rooms cost up to $600 per night.
"Everyone wants to come here," he said. "From now to December, I have 2,000 rooms booked."
A boom in tourism and development endangers the fragile Incan ruins, some say
MACHU PICCHU, PERU — Daily they swarm this mystical city of the Incas where the high ridges of the Peruvian Andes fall away to meet the Amazon rain forest.
The tourists — about 2,000 each day — tramp through the 15th century mountain sanctuary, clog the paths between the stone buildings, scale fragile rock-and-sod terraces.
Now, following Machu Picchu's widely publicized designation as one of the "New 7 Wonders of the World," South America's best known archaeological site is bracing for even more visitors, while just down the mountain, new hotels and restaurants are going up to serve them. But some experts fear Machu Picchu and its surroundings will be loved to death.
"If we open up Machu Picchu to more tourism, the place will be destroyed within 10 years," said David Ugarte, a former Peruvian Culture Ministry official and a leading voice promoting conservation of the site. "We don't want to turn it into an Incan Disneyland."
Two other tourist attractions in the Americas — Chichen Itza's ruins in Mexico, which also made the "New 7 Wonders" list, and Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, which was considered for the list but did not make it — face similar pressures.
Thanks, in part, to cheap international flights and the fact that many people have more disposable income, global tourism is booming, and isolated spots once accessible to only the most stout-hearted or affluent adventurers are now just a discounted plane ride away. Tourists, however, bring more than their cameras.
Besides the wear and tear on the sites themselves, more visitors mean more hotels, restaurants, stores and an influx of workers to run them. The result is often more traffic, garbage, noise and deforestation around some of the world's most delicate ecosystems.
"Human activity has become the greatest threat of all to the world's cultural heritage, causing irreparable harm," said Bonnie Burnham, president of the World Monuments Fund. "The rapid rise in global tourism is bringing more and more people to often fragile and unprotected places."
In Mexico, government officials celebrated when the Maya ruins of Chichen Itza made the "New 7 Wonders" list in June after a worldwide Internet vote instigated by a Swiss adventurer, Bernard Weber. The Mexicans expect a surge in tourism.
But some experts say the site is already overcrowded. More than 1.2 million visitors trekked to the Yucatan Peninsula to visit Chichen Itza last year. Their foot traffic has eroded the stone steps of the Kulkukan pyramid, and several careless tourists have fallen off the structure and sustained serious injuries.
"Mass tourism is destructive because people act differently when they are in large groups," said Eduardo Perez, archaeological director of Chichen Itza. "It provides an anonymity which can lead to bad behavior."
Mexico lobbied to include Chichen Itza as one of the new seven wonders, as did Brazil, where the successful effort to get the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue added to the list was a national priority.
The country's telephone companies waived the cost of Internet votes cast by text message. Brazilian soccer players held up a banner appealing for votes before a match with England. And even the country's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pitched in. He climbed Corcovado Hill to don a Christ the Redeemer T-shirt and instruct Brazilians how to vote for the 100-foot-tall concrete statue of Jesus blessing the city of Rio de Janeiro with open arms.
Another site that was considered for, but did not make, the "New 7 Wonders" list, the Galapagos Islands, ranks as one of the hemisphere's most at-risk destinations.
Rising tourism to the islands has sparked massive immigration from the mainland, overfishing, and the introduction of alien plants and animals, like feral goats and weedlike blackberry bushes, that wreak havoc on the island's one-of-a-kind native species. In June, the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, put the islands, which inspired Charles Darwin to come up with the theory of evolution, on its list of endangered World Heritage sites.
Machu Picchu, built in the 1400s, perhaps as an Incan ceremonial center, was brought to the world's attention by American historian Hiram Bingham who stumbled upon the well-preserved stone huts, temples and ceremonial baths in 1911. The site was soon recognized as an architectural masterpiece.
"The Incas put together a wonderful mix of architecture, culture and nature and that's what attracts millions of people," said Mariana Mould, a Peruvian historian.
At first, only a few hardy travelers and explorers, riding mules, managed to reach the site.
Later, political upheaval, a cholera outbreak and a protracted war between government forces and Shining Path guerrillas kept tourists at bay. In 1992, for example, just 9,000 people visited Machu Picchu.
Today, the Shining Path has largely been crushed, and Peru has enjoyed several years of stability. Foreigners are flocking to Peru and Machu Picchu, where 700,000 walked through the turnstiles last year.
But sharing a misty, Machu Picchu sunrise alongside throngs of fellow travelers can take some of the magic out of the moment.
By noon on most days, the paths between the buildings are jammed with pedestrians. The air is filled with the voices of tour guides giving crash courses in Inca history in Italian, French and English. And the herds of llamas that roam the ruins at daybreak are nowhere to be seen.
"We got here at 6 a.m., and there were still crowds," said Lottie Hancock, a British tourist, as she lay on her back on one of the terrraces, taking a breather.
There are so many that each day the Peruvian government allows just 500 backpackers to start hiking the Inca trail, a 28-mile path through lush jungle and cloud forest that ends at Machu Picchu.
By late afternoon, most sightseers have descended the mountain to eat, drink and dance to traditional Inca pipe-and-drum bands in the overcrowded dormitory town of Aguas Calientes.
Still, there's no consensus on the real impact of so many visitors.
In 2001, Japanese geologists warned that due to shifts in the earth and constant foot traffic, Machu Picchu was in danger of slipping off its mountain peak. But they later backed away from their conclusion. According to UNESCO, the ruins themselves are in good shape — except, that is, for the site's principal stone shrine, the Intihuatana, which was chipped when a massive crane fell over during the unauthorized filming of a beer commercial.
The main threat, UNESCO said in a July report, comes from unchecked development in the areas surrounding the sanctuary.
For example, crowds of backpackers on the Inca Trail have degraded and sullied the path with waste.
"It's pretty bad," said Kurt Winterfield, a Utah native, after spending three days on the trail. "They may have some bathrooms, but they're pretty spread out. So they don't get used."
Once a tiny speck of a village, Aguas Calientes, just a few miles from Machu Picchu, is now an Andean Kathmandu, with hundreds of Internet cafes, bars and hotels and 4,000 permanent residents. To beat the crowds, the wake-up calls in many hotels come at 5 a.m., and within minutes, the streets are packed with groggy tourists boarding buses for the short ride to the ruins.
In it's July report, UNESCO warned about the out-of-control growth of Aguas Calientes, saying there is an "ever increasing level of risks from landslides, fires, structural failure, health threats and social crisis."
For now, the only way to approach Machu Picchu is by train from Cuzco, a journey that is.slow, crowded and expensive, limiting the number of daily visitors.
But a new bridge, built illegally and denounced by UNESCO, allows motorists to drive down a winding dirt road to within a few miles of Machu Picchu.
Many experts predict that if the road is ever paved, tourists will eschew the expensive train tickets and travel by car or bus to the site. The experts advocate placing strict limits on the numbers of daily tourists, and the nonprofit World Monuments Fund in June placed Machu Picchu on its endangered list.
But the Peruvian government will have none of it. "These attitudes are somewhat alarmist and catastrophic," Peruvian President Alan Garcia said. He pointed out that nobody is calling for caps on visitors to Notre Dame or other famous attractions.
Tourism, he said, helps to fuel the country's annual 7 percent economic growth rate. Everyone, from construction workers to the impoverished indigenous women who sell trinkets in the streets, has a stake in the tourist boom.
As he sipped a soft drink in the bar of his newly opened five-star hotel in Aguas Calientes, general manager Anibal Clavijo said he had no worries about filling the place up — even though rooms cost up to $600 per night.
"Everyone wants to come here," he said. "From now to December, I have 2,000 rooms booked."