From 1438 to 1532, the Inca Empire covered what is now Peru and Ecuador along with portions of Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile.

It had about 20,000 miles of road.

Communication was by runners. Each young man with a message ran about two miles and, as he approached the next relay station, he blew on a conch horn. The next runner would run alongside and memorize the message to be carried forward. With this system, messages could travel about 150 miles a day.

The runners were going so fast, fresh fish could make it from the ocean to the king high in the Andes for dinner.  

Steve Levi is an Alaskan writer who specializes in the Alaska Gold Rush (nonfiction) and the ‘impossible crime,’ (fiction.)  An ‘impossible crime’ is one where the detective must figure out HOW the crime was committed before going after the perpetrators – like a Greyhound bus with bank robbers and hostages disappearing off the Golden Gate Bridge –THE MATTER OF THE VANISHING GREYHOUND. Steve’s books can be found at www.authormasterminds.com/steve-levi