Diana Korte (Special to the Denver Post).- Machu Picchu is the spectacular Inca archeological ruins located 8,000 feet high in the Andes on a narrow ridge near the Equator. This other-worldly three square miles is surrounded by towering peaks in Peru at the edge of the Amazon rain forest. It's the most visited destination in South America, with about 1,000 travelers each day, many from North America and Europe.

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HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The story of Machu Picchu begins with Inca builders and engineers in the 1460s who created the temples, homes and waterways of this mountain retreat.

Beyond its breathtaking beauty, a great deal of its allure is the mystery of why Machu Picchu is here and why was it abandoned by the Incas. The Incas left no written language to describe it, nor does it appear in any chronicles of the Spanish conquerors who arrived in the 1530s. The theory supported by many archaeologists today is Machu Picchu was built as a mountain retreat for Pachacuti, the greatest of Inca emperors, sort of an early Camp David, a retreat away from the busy streets of the Inca capital, Cusco. There are other theories, including devastating diseases, about why it was abandoned, but it's believed that Machu Picchu was mostly forgotten even before the Spanish conquerors came 70 years later.

This Andean hideaway stayed hidden from Western travelers for some four centuries until Yale University's Indiana Jones-like Hiram Bingham, who was looking for the Lost City of the Incas, climbed up Machu Picchu's precipitous mountainside in 1911. He was guided by a local Quechua boy who lived nearby with his family. Machu Picchu wasn't the lost city Bingham was looking for, but he put it on the tourist map.


STOPPING IN CUSCO FOR PIPED-IN OXYGEN

To get to this remote cloud forest area of high-altitude jungle, travelers first arrive in sea-level Lima. After a day or so of museum and cathedral hopping, next they fly to bustling Cusco, Peru's former Inca capital, located at 11,000 feet in the mountains. The Monasterio Hotel there, once a Jesuit seminary dating from the 1500s and before that an Inca Palace, offers piped-in oxygen in guest rooms at night to help travelers acclimate to the altitude. The traditional cure for altitude adjustment here is cups of coca tea, an ancient herbal remedy.

Some of the finest structures of the Inca Empire, a sovereignty that stretched the distance from Seattle to San Diego, are in this city of a quarter of a million people. Cusco, also known as Cuzco, is one of the highest cities in the world and was a thriving capital, according to Spanish documents, that quite astonished the invaders with its structural workmanship and beauty in the 1500s.

After a day or two in Cusco with its colonial churches, Inca monuments and markets, travelers board railway cars in the morning for a several-hours ride. The blue-liveried Orient-Express PeruRail train travels 3,000 feet down in altitude to the towering Machu Picchu ruins at 8,000 feet while moving through incomparable scenery of peaks, valleys and rural life.

Periodically, the train stops for the local women who line up along the train tracks to sell their colorful and inexpensive dolls, ponchos, alpaca blankets, rugs and other items to tourists who enthusiastically shop through open train windows.

Once the train arrives in Aguas Calientes, there's a 15-minute walk through the marketplace and a 30-minute bus ride that twists and turns up the side of a mountain to the entrance of the Machu Picchu Park.


PAGO A LA TIERRA IN MACHU PICCHU

When we awoke at the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, the only hotel permitted in this ancient citadel, the clouds were so dense that we couldn't see the ruins, much less the surrounding mountains. By mid-morning, though, the wispy clouds, sometimes as fine as curling cigarette smoke, would sporadically part and reveal Machu Picchu glowing in the sunshine.

Here was the bench that overlooks the ruins, the mountains and the valley with the raging waters of the Urubamba River 1,500 feet below. As I sat there enjoying the view, every few minutes another guide with a group would come by, each explaining his own Machu Picchu theories. Other travelers from around the world would also come and sit for a while, too. One of them was a Brit who had walked the Inca Trail the previous three days and was, as he said, resting his tired legs. This 26-mile trail was constructed at the time Machu Picchu was created and is considered one of the finest historical and cultural hikes in the world.

Today's hikers can start at the beginning of the trail outside Cusco or take a train part of the way and then walk the rest.


By 3 in the afternoon all but the handful of people staying at the Sanctuary Lodge (capacity is 31 guests) or are traveling on the Orient Express Hiram Bingham train have left on the last bus to either catch a return train to Cusco or stay in one of the lodges in the valley below.


After dinner by candlelight where we sampled grilled alpaca -- which tastes like tender beef -- our group gathered flashlights and walked back into the park under a cloudy sky. After 15 minutes we arrived at the Guardhouse, an original building that has three walls and is open on one side. About a dozen of us sat on a built-in stone ledge. In the middle, a woman shaman-in-training was waiting for us. She was 30-something, of medium height, clothed in traditional Peruvian dress who showed us the traditional "Pago a la Tierra," or payment to the earth Inca ceremony, that dates back 1,000 years.


The Guardhouse was lit by several dozen candles as she explained in English this ancient religious ceremony. She put numerous items on a table in front of us, among them flower petals, plastic figurines and rice. At the end of the ceremony, after asking us all to think of a wish, she bundled the offerings in paper and tied the package with ribbon, to be burned later.


LUXURY TRAVEL HIGH IN THE ANDES

Travelers have come to Peru for generations, but now they come more than ever in all price ranges. This is true in part because on the world stage of tourism, Peru is deemed a safe destination. In addition, travelers can journey to Machu Picchu in high style, a welcome innovation that's not wildly pricey. This destination's required overnight stops all have newly renovated Orient-Express hotels. In Lima it's the boutique Miraflores Park Plaza Hotel located a few feet from the sea. In Cusco it's the historic Hotel Monasterio, and in the park it's the one-of-a-kind Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge.

Abercrombie & Kent, that put our tour package together, provided all guides and ground support for us. Our tour also included flights by LanPeru, an affiliate of South America's prosperous LanChile Airlines.

Orient-Express in conjunction with PeruRail also started the Hiram Bingham train in September, 2003, that's proven quite popular. It travels from Cusco to Machu Picchu and is decked out in 1920s Pullman opulence. This four-car train leaves the station at 9 a.m., while all other trains leave at 6 a.m.

Travelers are given brunch, a tour of the ruins with a guide and afternoon tea. They don't have to leave until near sundown, hours after all park visitors have left except those lucky ones staying at the Sanctuary Lodge.

On the way back to Cusco, train guests are given cocktails, dinner and entertainment.

Not only is a visit to history-rich Peru one that ranges from ancient mystical ceremonies to soaring Andean vistas, now you can do it style in these days of increased travel to South America.