This is a new one to me, and pretty in-depth after all!
--M.
Excerpt from
arcahuasi.html
The quiet village of San Pedro sits at 10,000'. This is our view
looking back - half way up the trail to Marcahuasi.
"It is an unusual vertical outcropping of white rock about thirty feet
tall, pointing straight up to the sky. Eric had told me that it's
hollow inside, that you can stand in its center. Apparently when
you do so, you feel an energy pouring through you, connecting
you between the Earth and the sky. I was told that something
remarkable would happen if you stand there long enough,
although Erik was uncertain as to exactly what I could expect. My
mind flashed back to the stories we had been told by Edith and
Erik. I wondered if the man from Austria had ventured into this
edifice. We got close enough to see its features. We realized it
would take longer than expected to arrive at. By that time we had
been climbing up and down the mountain all morning and were
getting tired. Also, because it was getting late (and we didn't
have enough water with us) we decided not to go any further."
The Secret Cavern
Late that afternoon, CB revealed some of the secrets of Marca
Huasi. He had intended only to tell Jerry, who insisted that the
entire group should have the opportunity to take part in the
discussion. The information he spoke of involved the mysterious
stone figures and passageways to the inner earth. CB told us
that inside Marca Huasi is a temple complex, a large
underground cavern where they would perform rituals. During
these events, beings from "other dimensions" would materialize
and instruct them. "In fact," Jerry said, "these beings had been
there as recently as a few weeks before our arrival and told them
we were coming!" Jerry seriously considered going into the
cavern, but reluctantly decided not to. "I really wasn't prepared.
I've done cave explorations many times and I know that to go into
any cave you're not familiar with you should at least take rope,
high-powered flashlights and other essentials. Although CB and
Pedro told me it was safe, I didn't want to take my tour group
members in there. Although I would have gone alone, I know
they would have felt left out had I gone in without them."
Jerry had a good reason to be wary. He knew of another group
who had been lost in the legendary tunnel system that runs
throughout South America. It was during 1954 that a group of 14
men from Europe went into a cave in the mountains above
Cuzco. They never came out. The Peruvian government sent a
team of 20 fully equipped army militia men to find them. They
never returned. Within a week another team of ten men entered
the passages to look --- they never came out either! Weeks went
by with no sign of those who were missing. They were
presumed lost and in the Spring, a bulldozer arrived to seal the
entrance with a huge granite boulder. To this day no one has
heard from any who were lost. No one has ever ventured into the
cave again.