If you take the path known as the "Inca Trail", to get to Machu Piccu, you will see five separate sets of ruins during the three or four days necessary to cross the high terrain. The Inca road is stll paved in stretches and follows a route over three high passes, the highest being around 4,500 meters.
The sites includ a large agricultural center; a look-out post; two large military garrisons; and a small exclusive royal retreat.
The last, called Winay Waina is the most precious pre-Columbian site I have seen. A small grouping of houses sit on a cliff, over-looking the rushing Urubamba River, far below. Behind, against the mountain, is a high waterfall. The slopes ascending, behind the structures, are built into semi-circular terraces, seemingly for gardens; they terminate at the left side, in a "staircase" of baths, which extend down to the buildings.
Casting your eyes upward, across the gulf of space, high above, are snow caps on soaring peaks. The imagination runs wild trying to picture the Inca Nobility, or perhaps, high priests here, six hundred years ago.
This painting was made from the memory of Winay Waina.
ARTIST'S COMMENTARY (continued)
"Winay Waina"
Sept. 22, 1988
egg tempera on watercolor block paper
7 x 10 inches