High up in the snow-covered Andes, a great road once ran...
The Royal Inca Highway was an extraordinary engineering achievement.
Longer than the Roman Road, it has been compared to the Great
Wall of China in both its scope and grandeur. Even the Spanish
conquerors thought that it had been built by Gods, not men.
The Road was absolutely essential to the stability of the far-flung
Inca empire, and therefore a key element to one of South America's
greatest indigenous cultures.
This is the story of Karin Muller’s 3,200-mile journey
from Quito to Santiago along the Royal Inca Road. Karin spent
seven months traveling down the spine of the Andes and along
the coast of Chile -- through rugged mountains, dense jungle,
freezing rivers, and desert that has yet to see a single drop
of rain. She used only local transport: hiking, hitchhiking,
motorbike, reed boat, and bus. Karin carried everything she
needed on her back and shared her days and nights with the Quechua
and Spanish-speaking Indians she met along the way. The resulting
documentary and book reflects this intimate look at the present-day
descendants of a great empire and the extraordinary road it
built.
The Documentary
Along the Inca Road was made in the same style that
made Hitchhiking Vietnam so popular to both American
and European audiences: a woman traveling alone, speaking the
language and living within the culture. Karin is both an experienced
traveler and a natural communicator. Her natural inclination
for adventure and physical challenge balances well with her
ability to create a shared emotional experience with the viewer.
The result is a compelling mix of classic adventure, historical/cultural
insight and personal odyssey along one of the great historical
highways of the world.
