Chasqui
Agile, highly trained and physically fit, they were in charge of carrying messages in the form of quipus, oral information, or small packets.
I.3 The name chasqui is derived from the Quechua word chaski (plural chaskikuna) meaning "reception, acceptance, consent" and historically "postilion".
[3]: chaski According to Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, the Spanish−Inca chronicler and writer of the 16th Century, the word chasqui means "the one who exchanges".
Each 'churo chasque' [chasqui carrying a shell] was stationed at intervals of one-half league [2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi)] so he could run the distance quickly.
At each station, four to six slim, fit and young chasquis would stand in wait, with a roof or a hut to protect them from the sun and the rain.
The waiting chasquis would constantly surveil the road to spot the incoming runner, the latter of which shouted within sight of the hut and played his seashell trumpet, in order to alert the new one to take his place.
VII According to the chronicle of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa the chasqui service was established by Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui who had extended his empire very much towards the north and who needed to have fresh daily reports from all the provinces of his vast kingdom, thus he ordered his brother and captain general, Capac Yupanqui, to establish the system.
As a whole it was about 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi) long[7]: 242 The network was composed of formal[13] roads carefully planned, engineered, built, marked and maintained; paved where necessary, with stairways to gain elevation, bridges and accessory constructions such as retaining walls, and water drainage systems.
[14] The road system allowed for the transfer of information, goods, soldiers and persons, without the use of wheels, within the Tawantinsuyu or Inca Empire throughout a territory covering almost 2,000,000 km2 (770,000 sq mi)[15] and inhabited by about 12 million people.
VII underlines the presence of infrastructure (tambos) on the Inka road system where lodging posts for state officials and chasquis were ubiquitous across the Inca empire; they were well spaced and well provisioned.
It is not yet defined if this was a planned decision, because that road part was not useful for information transfer, or simply there is no current evidence of them due to their poor construction.
The chaskiwasis were an integral part of the routes and defined some of the most characteristic aspects of the operation of the road network that called the attention of the first Spaniards that was reflected in the chronicles, as was the speed in the transmission of messages and small goods for the Inka.
I.3 The Peruvian architect Santiago Agurto Calvo –professor and rector of the National University of Engineering in Lima– cites Von Hagen's experiment along the Inca road in the Mantaro Valley between Jauja and Bonbón which demonstrated that young Quechuas, having no special training, could run the distance of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) in about 4 minutes and keep this pace for about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi).
I.3 Guaman Poma de Ayala in his manuscript "Primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno", preserved in the Copenhagen Royal Library[20] mentions and depicts the chasquis twice.
And the lesser runner was named caro chasque (messenger of snail) was placed at a day distance [to carry] heavy things.
And these runners must be sons of chiefs, of loyal and proved knights, as fast as a deer these were paid and equipped by the Inca as lord and king.
"[9] : 312 Murúa confirms that "When the Inga wanted to eat fresh fish from the sea, since it was seventy or eighty leagues [350 to 400 kilometres (220 to 250 mi)] (from the coast) to Cuzco, where he lived, they would bring it to him alive, which indeed seems an incredible thing over such a long stretch and distance, and on such roads, rough and intricate" Murúa gives also fresh information about the speed of the chasquis and the punishments they were given in case they became lazy.
VIII The chasquis according to Murúa were raised since children "with great care and only once a day they were fed […] and only once they drank, and thus they were skinny, and the parents tested them if they were fast, making them run uphill and follow a deer, and if they were lazy they were punished in the same way, so that the entire caste and generation of Chasquis Indians was fast and light, and for a long time."
Murúa regrets the progressive disappearance of the chasquis system, which was an extremely effective communication system for the Andean zone,[23] stating that the service " is not performed nowadays with the punctuality and care of the past, in the times of the Inga, because then the distance of [the run of] these couriers was small, and thus the notices ran very quickly, without stopping for a single moment anywhere, not even for the chasqui to take a break and breathe.
Other times I have seen letters arrive from Lima to Cuzco in four days, which are one hundred and twenty leagues, almost all rough roads and very difficult to walk."[19]: Ch.
