Without doing any research, we serendipitously arrived to Peru at one of the best possible of times....during the colorful Inca festival of Inti Raymi in Cusco. Afterwards, we took a trip to Lake Titicaca (which borders with Bolivia) for a two-day lake tour of various islands (while taking tons of pepto). And we finished our Peruvian trip with a glorious (and tortuous) four day hike on the Inca Trail to the great lost city of Machu Picchu. We just had too many photos and stories to fit into one update, so we've made three pages for Peru.

We used the city of Cusco and as our base while while in Peru. It used to be the capital of the Inca Empire and we easily fell in love with this cobblestone city (which has been called the "Katmandu of South America"). Instead of the Himalayas, there are the impressive Andes and the people speak Quechua. We arrived in time for the annual Inca Festival of INTI RAYMI on June 24 which is the Sun Festival. To celebrate, the entire city, including the thousands of tourists, take to the streets to bring in the winter solstice. The night before the official procession, everyone passed a night of debauchery. There were lots of rosy cheeks and bottles of rum hidden under ponchos

The colors were so intense that I actually had to tone down some of these photos. For the final ceremony, there wasn't an extra inch of space on the hillside of Sacsayhuaman

Alpacas can be told apart from llamas by their fuzzy cheeks and smaller bodies. We were trying to do a documentary about their fuzzy butts, but the owners kept asking for money when we took a picture....it got to be expensive....mission aborted.

Back to the current BEARINGS page...please.