The Connecticut-Peru Connection

NOTE:  This month, WNPR reporter Diane Orson and producer Catie Talarski are in Peru, interviewing subjects for a series of reports on the dispute between Yale University and Peru over ancient artifacts, now held by the university.

In one of her updates, Catie writes: 

Hiram Bingham described his first impressions of Machu Picchu:

A jungle-covered maze of small and large walls, the ruins of buildings made of blocks of white granite, most carefully cut and beautifully fitted together without cement. Surprise followed surprise until there came the realization that we were in the midst of as wonderful ruins as any ever found in Peru.

Bingham’s name is all over the small village of Aguas Caliente, where you make the ascent to the ancient ruins. On street signs, sprawled on trains and engraved in plaques… a Connecticut connection to this place that, in so many ways, couldn’t be further away.

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