Peru was in a state of seige, Halley’s Comet was making its cyclical reappearance for the first time in seventy-two years, and the throngs of tourists that would soon elevate Machu Picchu to a major world tourist destination had not yet descended upon the Sacred Valley. Before the luxury hotels and high-speed trains, an independent traveler armed with a poem encounters the obstacles and rewards of a puzzled trail in the quest to reach Machu Picchu, the legendary Lost City of the Incas.