The Andes have become a symbol of a lost world of Inca wisdom and cities in the clouds, of the Celestine Prophecy and Indiana Jones. It needs two men (and their mule) to cut their way through the mystique with some machetes and wit.

Renowned explorers Hugh Thomson and Benedict Allen join forces with their trusty mule, Washington to journey to the extraordinary Last City of the Incas, Espíritu Pampa. Deep down in the Amazon, this is where the Incas escaped when on the run from the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th Century and where the very last Inca emperor, Tupac Amaru, was finally captured and brought back to be executed in the main square of Cuzco.

This arduous trek takes them down off the steep slopes of the Andean cloud-forest into the steamy jungle, down stone-laid Inca paths, across raging rivers and landslides as they trek to the last city of the Incas - Espiritu Pampa - 'the Pampa of Ghosts'.

Produced by Ruth Evans
A Ruth Evans Production for BBC Radio 4. Show less