Crunch. Crunch. The grass felt mild as my bare feet walked gracefully along the grass. Although, the touch of twigs wasn’t pleasant, I still could study how the llamas could be important to such a wealthy empire. I stared straight at the road that stretched 2,000 miles long. I started to walk closer and closer to the road. The road stretched really far out and I knew that if I walked along it my feet would ache and ache.
Suddenly, my eye caught a glimpse of something which was shinier than the pool on a warm summer day. I heard the sound of thousands of feet and saw a figure that stood out from the others. Da dum. Da dum. My heart was beating fast. I quickly ran to a forest of trees and hid myself in the greenery, camouflaged. I finally could get a closer look at everything. A couple of men held a throne on their shoulders with a treasure worth more than $100,000, the emperor.
I heard a noise coming from the crowd so I leaned in to hear what was said. “ The Sapa Inca.” “He has come.” The two sentences ringed in my head but sounded like baseball fans doing the wave, cheering as they stood up. As I skimmed the emperor's body, I saw jewelry dangling from his neck. “ The Sapa Inca?” “ I haven’t heard anything like this for a long time even know I am a successful archaeologist.” he thought. I heard the sound of the crowd of people going down on their knees. “I should get out of here.” “I should get out of here before something happens.”
Sploosh! I then got sudden chills. Sploosh! Sploosh! Sploosh! I ran through the forest, my heart beating each step I ran. I, for some reason thought of the “Sapa Inca” to be narcissus ( someone who is obsessed with their own appearance). I saw a house in front of me and I knocked on the door and ran inside without anybody answering. “Hello?” said a voice from the distance. “Asiri are you home.” I didn’t answer. Tip-toeing was the only thing on my mind so I tiptoed into the kitchen and stopped in the entranceway. I paused to see rows of potatoes lined up on every shelf. My eyes filled up with glee. A figure appeared from out of nowhere, holding something in its hand, from looking at the shadow. With a few steps the figure was now seen in full vision.
The figure wore a piece of long cloth the color of a horse’s skin. I studied the figure closely and realized he was a farmer with no hesitation. A long string with smaller strings hanging down from it was sitting among his hands. I carefully watched him tie knots in the tiny strings. “Asiri. Is that you?” He didn’t answer at first but kept looking at the potatoes. I took a few steps closer to him and saw that he was tying knots on the tiny strings.
“Sorry.” “Did you ask if my name is Asiri?” asked the stranger.
“Um, ya.” I answered.
“Well, you got that right.”
“What’s that you’re holding?”
“Are you joking?” “Haaa!”
“No.” “No I’m not joking.”
“This is called Quipu.”
I quickly took out my note book and wrote down “Quipu”. “One more question for ya.”
“Question for ya?”
“Ya.” “ Why do you keep looking over at those potatoes?”
“You can use Quipu for counting.” said Asiri.
“Interesting.” I walked slowly toward the front door and checked if it was still raining. Only a few drops remained. Took the trip back to the kitchen where Asiri was. “Which way is the big temple?” I asked.
“Big temple?” “Ohh. Right. It’s in that direction. “Go straight, take two turns right, go straight, turn left, and finally turn right.”
“Thanks.” I wrote down all of the directions in the order Asiri said, so I won’t forget it. Although, he didn’t say what the ruins were called. I headed for the door and started heading straight.
Minutes passed and hours. I thought it was going to be a long time until I reached the first right turn. “I sure hope I haven’t missed it yet and I was taking a different route. Finally, the second turn approached. The land was covered with greenery everywhere with grass covering everything. All of the lush was camouflaged as I kept walking. Through and through I went. Closer and closer to my location. I took lots of notes about the nature around me. I continued walking until I got pass all of the turns.
I could see brown. Just brown. All brown. I walked closer and closer to the ruins. “This now stands as Machu Picchu, tourist attraction.” “Machu Picchu” was the only thing that could come to my mind. I got out my tools and started digging and finding. Digging and finding. Dust after dust. My brush was a handy tool. Afterall, Machu Picchu isn’t in the greatest condition. I started lunging forward looking at the building. It was amazing to think that I had done it! I accomplished something remarkable!
I picked up stones, tossed them behind me, and dug through a pile of rocks. In the pile there laid some vases. I then thought that Machu Picchu must have been the place for the Sapa Inca to hang out. I wondered how high up I was standing, to be this high up in altitude. “It was a great experience to accomplish something this big and to be the first person to see it.” I thought. Truly, this was an amazing discovery and I could feel it in my heart!
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