The story of Hiram Bingham Part 1 of 2
(28 Reviews)
100% Recommended
Debbie Linder
Nashville, TN
Luxury travel, river cruise & vacation specialist
I was born in Chicago and eventually moved to the western suburbs. We traveled quite extensively as a family and I was always looking forward to the next trip. So I was hooked at a very young age. I started in travel and worked for a leisure agenc...
I was born in Chicago and eventually moved to the western suburbs. We traveled quite extensively as a family and I was always looking forward to the next trip. So I was hooked at a very young age. I started in travel and worked for a leisure agency for 20 years. Totally by surprise and out of the blue I was contacted by a Corporate agency with over 35 million in sales to open, develop and run a new division of their agency geared toward vacation travel. It was an amazing job! My knowledge and expertise really took off with the vacation side for their agency.
I have an extensive following so with my "regulars" and now all of these endless new clients I was seeing burnout. After several years, I decided to open my own agency and create the business I wanted. Golden Travel Inc was born. Yes, the name is a tribute to my love of Golden Retriever's!
For 25 years I worked extensively with the 101st Airborne to organize a local "get together" in their area. They were a group like no other and loved to talk of their experiences, some of my phone calls lasted hours! Once a year we would arrange a group trip with their children and even grand children back to Bastogne and Normandy where we had several wreath ceremonies to commemorate those that were lost and also private events where they could rebond year after year. Many of them had made friends with locals during the war and wanted to go back to visit them. Maybe they just offered them a cup of coffee during the night, but they never forgot. We made that happen, time and time again. In the early years, several made the jump on to the beaches in Normandy. As they got older and less were able to do that, we had 1 jumper that in his mid 90's made the jump onto the beach every year. I remember he told me, "parachutes had come a long way" I could feel the smile on his face.
We leave no stone unturned when it comes to creating the dream.
I have been a travel professional for 42 years and love my job.
My areas of expertise include but is not limited to:
- Europe
- River Cruises
- South America
- African Safaris
- Egypt
- Galapagos
- Machu Picchu
- Russia
- Mexico/Caribbean
- All inclusive resorts
- Ocean Cruises
- Customized European Tours
Whether you travel as a single, couple or groups of friends and family I can customize your journey to include highlights of each destination but also the hidden gems that you don't read about in a brochure. My reputation is about details and custom itineraries.
I am foodie, so taking food tours and cooking classes all over the world I find that food is the breakthrough for each destination. Its a great start on the local culture and the back round of food is what makes each country so unique. If you really want to dive in to the local way of life, I can arrange dinner with a local at their home almost anywhere in the world. That's a once in a lifetime experience!
In our first meeting we will discuss what excites you about travel and then I will work out a truly unique itinerary that highlights all of your desires. We will work things out at a leisurely pace so you have time to wander and explore on your journey.
We provide a beautiful itinerary for all of our clients on all of their travels. We provide this on our app but also as a PDF if you prefer to have things printed.
I feel so fortunate that I have spent my life travelling. There are still those that say, "when I retire" or "someday". Now more than ever in this new world we are living in, we see that tomorrow is not like yesterday. We've all spent a year of our lives basically putting that dream on hold. Its just lost time. So when we can get going again, lets do it - DON'T PUT OFF THAT DREAM!
As your travel professional the first item I want to talk about with you, will be having the proper documentation for your travel. If you don't have a passport and you need it for your destination then we need to get that going. Passport expiration dates are extremely important as different countries have different rules. We monitor entry and exit requirements for your travel travel throughout the world.
Passport, inoculations and visas can change and we are always on top of that. Now more than ever with COVID countries entry and exit requirements are changing daily. This is a changing environment and you need a professional to help navigate this changing world.
I have already had clients that had to change up their last minute plans to get COVID testing when it wasn't required 3 days ago. Hopefully it will get easier but until then I've got your back!
Can Be Reached At
1-630-365-6210
Dine and dance your way between Cusco MP
This is a bit of a continued story from our visit to Machu Picchu. Hiram Bingham found MP and his story if pretty cool. So if you can't hear it in person just yet (you will when you get there) here you can read his amazing story.
Hope you enjoy the read!
Hiram Bingham was an American historian who was employed as a lecturer at Yale University; he was not a trained archaeologist. In 1909, on his way back from attending the Pan-American Scientific Congress in Santiago, he traveled through Peru and was invited to explore the Inca ruins at Choqquequirau in the Apurimac Valley, which gave him an interest in Inca ruins, and an introduction to Peruvian President Augusto Leguía.
He organized the 1911 Yale Peruvian Expedition with one of its objectives to search for the lost city of Vitcos, the last capital of the Incas. Armed with this information, the expedition went down the Urubamba River valley on the new road that was completed in 1895. En route he asked local people to show them Inca ruins. By the time they camped at Mandor Pampa with Huayna Picchu 2000 feet above them on the opposite bank they had already examined several ruins, including five sites that Herman Tucker explored.
But none fit the descriptions they had of Vitcos.At Mandor Pampa, Bingham asked a local farmer and innkeeper, Melchor Arteaga, if he knew of any ruins in the area and he said he knew of some excellent ruins on the top of Huayna Picchu. The next day, 24 July 1911, Arteaga led Bingham and Sergeant Carrasco across the river on a primitive log bridge and up the mountain. At the top of the mountain they came across a small hut occupied by a couple of Quechua Indians, Richarte and Alvarez, who were farming some of the original Machu Picchu agricultural terraces that they had cleared four years earlier.
After a rest and refreshments Bingham was led along the ridge to the main ruins by Pablito, the 11-year-old son of Alvarez.The ruins were mostly covered with vegetation except for the cleared agricultural terraces and clearings used by the farmers as vegetable gardens. Because of the vegetation Bingham was not able to get a full extent of the site. He took some preliminary notes and measurements, took some pictures and observed the fine quality of Inca stonework of several principal buildings.
Bingham was unclear of the original purpose of the ruins, but decided that there was no indication that it matched the description of the city of Vitcos.The expedition continued down the Urubamba and up the Vilcabamba Rivers, examining all the ruins they could find, eventually finding and correctly identifying the site of the old Inca capital, Vitcos, and the nearby temple of Chuquipalta. He then went across a pass and into the Pampaconas Valley where he found more ruins heavily buried in the jungle undergrowth at EspirituPampa. Because the site was so heavily overgrown, he only noted a few of the buildings and didn’t appreciate the large extent of the site.
In 1964, Gene Savoy did further exploration of the ruins at Espiritu Pampa and revealed the full extent of the site, identifying it as Vilcabamba Viejo where the Incas fled to after the Spanish drove them from Vitcos.On the return of the expedition up the Urubamba River, Bingham sent two of the team to do some clearing and mapping of the site he referred to as Machu Picchu. As Bingham failed to identify the ruins at Espiritu Pampa as Vilcabamba Viejo, he erroneously theorized that Machu Picchu was Vilcabamba Viejo.
Bingham returned to Machu Picchu in 1912 under the sponsorship of Yale University and National Geographic Society and with full support of President Leguía. The expedition undertook a massive four-month clearing of the site with local labor, which was expedited with the auspices of the Prefect of Cuzco. Excavation started in 1912 with further excavation of the site undertaken in 1914 and 1915. Bingham’s focus on Machu Picchu was because of the fine Inca stonework and the well preserved nature of the ruins that had not been disturbed since it was abandoned.
Although Bingham put forward various hypotheses to explain the existence of Machu Picchu, none of them has stood the test of further examination and study. Bingham’s lasting contribution is in publicizing Machu Picchu to the world and undertaking a rigorous and thorough study of the site. Bingham wrote a number of books and articles about the discovery of Machu Picchu, the most popular is the "Lost City of the Incas", a retrospective account of his 1911 Yale expedition and his discovery of Machu Picchu, written in 1948 near the end of his life.
Continued see part 2..see it really is a great story :)