Inca Trail and Machu Picchu, handwriting by Antonio Banderas

ANTONIO BANDERAS

The actor from Malaga has left this story as an account of his trip was published in the “Cosas de Peru” magazine. This testimony is about the trip he took with his daughter Stella.

Only a few months ago, he had the pleasure and the privilege to get to visit Peru for the first time. It was a professional visit, because he was working alongside the promotional activities of the Spanish company, the Puig Perfumery, who he has been collaborating with for the last 18 years.

There were a lot of people who, in love with their country, triggered in me an impulse that came closer to me, so that I could get to know, from a personal point of view, the details and the complexities of a multi-colorful, energetic Peru, full of an internal force and all the beauty that this country has to offer.

Among all of these people, there was one person that had encouraged me to make the decision to venture from a clear manifestation within the soul of Peru: that having been Armando Andrade. The enthusiasm and the passion that has explained to me the benefits of his beloved land, and has ended by awakening me the right amount of interest to prepare a visit, that, to this day, these words have been written down from my computer to later come back to me. I can assure to you that this has been one of the most potent and magical experiences in my life.

It has also led me to understand that the place we should visit was Machu Picchu, the enigmatic city of the Inca past. The way of getting there was by walking from Cusco, another one of the historic enclaves of this lost civilization, during the night.

“The Inca Trail began to speak to us with respect towards the mysteries of survival.”

When I made the decision to travel, I asked for assistance to go on this trip in the most discreet possible way, so that I wouldn’t go alone. My daughter Stella would form part of this expedition and I strongly wanted to enjoy this experience together with her. I owed to her this amount of time that we had not been able to spend together because of the trips I frequently take for work.

The trip began on the 15^th of July in the city of New York. I came from Europe, and my daughter was coming from Los Angeles. We were reunited there in New York and then we flew to Cusco the next day. The environment that we found there had a lot of frenetic activity. Tourists from all over the world were walking all over the streets of Cusco. Due to its colonial character, Cusco reminded me of the shapes and the styles of the Spanish land.

Antonio Banderas and his daughter Stella, during the trip put on by Peru Cosas:

“I will not relate our trip along the Inca Trail with normal detail. However I will say though that the four days and three nights that we spent on the route from Machu Picchu were converted, almost immediately, into an experience that combined the physical with the spiritual, the terrestrial with the telluric, and the individual with the collective”.

“I don’t know if the amount of days were getting to be more or if they were seeming to become less. The perception that we have is that now they are spread out while time was going by. However, these days were saturating us, like the raindrops that were hitting against our tents every night, until maybe, like we just woke up from a dream. We found ourselves in front of an ending stairway that had us directed towards the famous Sun Gate, where everything ends or begins, a specimen of the final test, an Inca wink”.

“At the end of the stairway, we could get a glimpse of the brightness known to me as the lens of a video camera that directly pointed at us. In this case, it was a threat that could interrupt the pureness that we have been looking for and that we have believed to have gained”.

“I shared tears of emotion with my daughter Stella, my travel partner.”

“I could get over it, but it formed part of my work and of my life. However I didn’t want anybody to rob the closeness in observing the city that was hidden for centuries, from my daughter Stella. I then begged, pleaded, and I think that I remember that I also cried out that we be presented with this moment. Just this very moment. It should have been very convincing that my request for the person who was controlling the camera was fulfilled by him in agreeing to let us experience this moment in a private sort of way. I will always thank him”.

“When we went up the stairs and went through the Sun Gate, I was very attentive that it would not contaminate us. I didn’t become aware of where we had found it. But, when I turned to look at my daughter, I saw that two tears were rolling down her cheeks. I had the lost visit in something upon my back. Gradually, I turned around and there it was. Like the edges of the carving of an emerald, with an unusual geometry but perfect: Machu Picchu, the end of our journey”.

“I also shared tears of emotion with my Stella, my travel companion, who will always remember the first time that she set upon this Peruvian balcony – from where you can see part of the world and the dreams of the people – which was made available by the hand of her father”.

“Machu Picchu, the undone city, like the human beings to which God can only extinguish, whatever the perception that one has of him. Yes, here is where God has passed by, this I am certain of”.

Source:  abc.es  / Translated by InfoCusco