UJ #14 - Qhapac Ñan

NICK STANZIANO AND JOHN LEIVERS
HAVE A SPECIAL CONNECTION WITH
THE ANDES. THAT PASSION FOR
THE PERUVIAN SIERRA AND THE
QHAPAQ ÑAN LED THEM TO START AN
EXPEDITION OF ALMOST FIVE MONTHS
THROUGH THIS MAGNIFICENT JEWEL OF
INCA ARCHITECTURE AND ENGINEERING.
What brought you to Peru?
Nick: I am from California, and people there have
a notion about Peru, the Andes, Machu Picchu
and the Incas; with stories like Hiram Bingham
or Indiana Jones. In 2005, I travelled to Cusco to
study Spanish, and in March of that year, I went
to work in Ollantaytambo. I was there for four
months, but I returned in 2009. My father always
had many concepts about Peru since his youth,
but he could never come. I did it for him to start
a life, a family.
John: I have been here for 26 years. I used to be
part of a very large British travel company, and I
was in charge of destinations in Africa, Asia, and
South America. I arrived at the beginning of 1991
and hiked through Manu, Iquitos and Cusco. After
the company went bankrupt, I became more
interested in what the expeditions were. I worked
as a tour guide to earn money, but at the same
time, I was exploring other remote parts of Peru
to learn the culture of those little-documented
places.
Nick, you once mentioned that Qhapaq
Ñan is a ‘physical experience’ of history,
what do you mean by that?
Nick: History and archeology consist of looking
back and interpreting what people thought and
did. What we have today are static experiences:
buildings or archaeological sites that you can only
Christian Declercq / KM Cero
79