Listen With Others

Oh, eXternal, you’ve started something now! I had relinquished all hopes of walking to Machu Picchu but on doing some background reading for this puzzle I discover that octogenarians are managing to complete the trail. Maybe a 70^th birthday treat. Or maybe not; I really enjoyed walking St Cuthbert’s Way last week with its gloriously varied scenery, but I suspect it hardly compares with the Inca Trail in terms of gradient, altitude, or my bugbear, heat.

Back to Pedestrian Destination: what an amazing construction! To create words capable of multiple alterations while spelling out LAKE TITICACA and THE INCA TRAIL is a worthy feat. Pedestrian Destination was an interesting, challenging and very  rewarding journey, with a delightful ending – an excellent if somewhat easier metaphor for the Inca trail itself I imagine – do let me know what it’s like.

The dropped letters were nicely disguised, and two clues stood out for me:

14ac “Pass water diviner, ignoring splendid fellow” (PEER) for contriving to clue R in such a way as to juxtapose water and diviner; and

32ac “One might turn red and scream blue murder, losing scrambled broadcast” (REMUEUR) for devising such a clever anagram.

Thanks very much eXternal for this delightful puzzle.