Lima is pretty amazing. Fernando's family has lived in Lima for many generations so he is very familiar with the city, its history and its attractions. He took us to many areas to see the sites so I'm trying to gather a flavor of what we saw.

This is an old city with a long, rich history and very interesting architecture.

One of my favorite things were the enclosed balconies on the front of many buildings. They add a touch of elegance even on busy streets.

Also, right in the middle of Miraflores district is Huaca Pucllana, a pre-Incan pyramid of adobe bricks. It's huge! And it is amazing to be so intact after all these centuries.

One of the most impressive things about Lima are plethora of parks. They have made sure green spaces are accessible and abundant in all neighborhoods.

Not far from our hotel was the Maria Reiche Park. Ms. Reiche spent a lifetime studying the Nazca Lines, and the park is in homage to her.

After we strolled around the park we went down the coast to the Barranco District. This district is known for it's lively night life, lots of little cafes, bars and restaurants.

We were there rather early. True to their European heritage nothing really gets going until after 8:00pm.

We covered a lot of territory, and since this is a city with Catholic history it included churches.

Some churches do not allow photography, but there were a few that did, so we tried to capture a little of the different flair in those we visited.

We also visited the Museum of Central Reserve where many of the Inca gold artifacts are displayed, along with some pottery.

Oh, so much to see and so little time.

In Parque de la Reseva - another one of those amazing public parks all around the city - they made a huge investment into 13 fountains.

Now, you might say "so what" to a bunch of fountains but all of these are different.

Most will have changing colors and some you can even play in, like the Fountain of Children. People of all ages come and play in the fountain, then go into the changing room to put on their dry clothes.

The climax of each night is an incredible fountain show to music. I do believe no one can do drama quite like Peruvians. I recorded most of the show, so do try to watch.

Hopefully the video will load and give you a little idea fo what the show was like.

WOW - a word I used often in Peru.

Cusco, a town we did not spend enough time exploring. Who knew
Cusco is pretty interesting. It is from here you take the train up to Aquas Caliente at the base of Machu Picchu.

In Inca culture, and still somewhat true today, the seat of power and those with money live in town and the poorer up on the hills. Got a couple great shots of those hillside abodes.

Amazingly the old Inca walls have stood solid through hundreds of earthquakes - can not say the same for more "modern" works.

This is a great place to walk and eat. Lots of good restaurants - and some American chains like KFC. We were amused.

Anyway, here are some shots of the town. Believe me, I did pare the number down but the place was just too good not to keep taking pictures of.
Really, really want to go back.

Sacsayhuaman is one of 4 ancient Inca sites that are quite near Cusco. In fact, if you are in good shape and have time you can walk to them.
Since we have neither time nor that lung capacity, we had a great guide - Victor Hugo Torres Saravia - and transport

The original buildings were constructed by the Killke , the people who lived here before the Inca came around 1100.
The Inca expanded on the site and built a very large complex with staggered entrance - presumably for easy defense- huge walls and large capacity for storage and defense.

The Inca were not so much warriors - although they did have large armies - but rather did deals in usurping local peoples. New information I did not know.

One of the latest theories is this was a major storage facility for Cusco. Remember, Cusco was where the wealthy lived. They did not labor or farm, so a fortified depot so near seems logical.

This was our second stop on our tour of the ruins surrounding Cusco.

Q'enko is small but holds many mysteries. It is believed to have been used for mummification of important people and possibly some sacrifices.

There is also an astrological aspect to the site - not explained fully but it's nice to know archeology is open to various interpretations.

Another one of the numerous buildings constructed under the great Emperor Pachacuti. The name references the red rock used.
Numerous theories have been proffered.

The traditional information indicate that when the Inca was preparing to visit the Baths of Tambomachay, the formidable retinue of soldiers, dancers and others stayed in was Pukapukara quarter and inn.

The first fort along the road to Cusco - a good place to keep an eye on the area because of it's position.
The fact it is built of smaller stones with less refinement suggests it was not a place of reverence for the king or holy men. Like social classes, the stone work reflected the class living in the facility.

Regardless it is quite interesting, and we thought it was worth the stop.

Our last stop today was Tambomachay - also called The Inca Baths

Not much is left but the 3 fountains still flow from an underground spring and the water is always clear.

Another example of great Inca engineering. The water still flows after 500 years of neglect. And we can't even keep Flint, Michigan water clean. GEESH

It is now believed this was used for ritual cleansing by the upper class - note the stonework. It reflects the status of the class of people.

See, I did listen to our guide, although I seem to only have retained a small portion of the info he gave us.

Up early. Another day another set of old Inca towns.

First stop is Pisac. Today there is a small active town of Pisac in the valley famed for it's market, but we were more interested in the ruins than shopping.

So hiking up the road we come to the ruins of Pisac.

Before the Spanish destroyed it and moved any survivors into the valley, the town had various districts.

There is the military area of Q'alla Q'asa, the bizarre cocoon tombs of T'antana Marka, the urban district of Qantus Raccay, the Inca baths and the residential area of Pisaqa.

I was glad we came early because by the time we were ready to leave there were dozens of tour buses lining the road.

Ollantaytambo is really 2 places. The town itself is - I think - the only in-tact Incan town still standing. The ruins above it are what remain of one of Pachacuti's royal estates.

After conquering the region he rebuilt the town with sumptuous constructions and undertook extensive works of terracing and irrigation in the Urubamba Valley.

After the Spanish invasion it was also the last stronghold for Inca Manco Yupanqui, leader of the Inca resistance at the time.

Again, a magnificent stonework.

Moray is totally different than anything we have seen so far.

Think "American Test Kitchen" but with an agricultural flair.

Yes, these were used to evaluate crops and farming methods.

Each ring is a small micro-climate varying in temperature by somewhere between 50 and 60 degree, mimicking the same temperatures at sea level to terraced lands at higher sites

So crops that liked it warmer were in one ring while the higher rings held other crops. Rather ingenious.

These salt pools have been in production since around the 1400s. They are fed by a salt rich underground stream.
The water is funneled into an intricate system of channels that lets the water flow slowly into the ponds

Although there does not seem to be any written history it appears they have been tended by families who pass them along to the next generation.

Workers monitor the flow of water and divert it when needed.
The evaporation ponds are harvested at different times to produce different salts.
If I remember correctly the first layer of salt is less pure and used for animals.
The next harvest layer is less dark and used for bath salts - these are apparently prized around the world.
The deepest and purest is table salt which is used by most restaurants in Peru, especially the gourmet ones.

All salt is harvested and bagged by hand.

This was a perfect way to end our tour of The Sacred Valley.

Aquas Calientes - means hot water in Spanish - is a little town at the base of the road up to Machu Picchu. It was nothing more than a little railroad tent town until the 1980's

Once Shining Path was eliminated and terrorism was under control tourism blossomed in Peru, everyone wanting to come see MP.
So, this quiet little town suddenly had a huge influx of tourists, and it had to grow quickly to even try to keep up. As you will see from the shots of the town, there is a lot of chaos and also a lot of building.

You would be amazed at how efficient they are at moving people up the mountain to MP. Disney World can't hold a candle to these guys. We were blown away.

Now I had read some rather disparaging things about Aquas Caliente - like scalping, padding bills, rude - but our experience was great. The people were fun, friendly and accommodating.
Our only regret is not spending another day here just to brows around and sit in a few more cafes.

Machu Picchu. It is everything you can imagine and much more.

OK, Brian says I liked MP so much because I finally found something almost as old as me. Gotta love that kid.

Built around 1450 or so by the great Pachacuti and was handed down to his family members.
The most recent research points to it as a personal estate of the emperor as well as a religious site.

As you can imagine we took a few thousand pictures in our zeal but I've weeded through them and I'll only dump a few hundred on you.
To try to make this easier I'm breaking them up into various sections.

This is the Postcard View - that famous angle on all the post cards that shows some of the ruins and Huayna Picchu in the background.
The Temple of the moon is on top of Huayna Picchu and you can take a guided hike up to it.

Gotta go back one day before I'm too old.

After the initial Postcard shots, which you need to work to get because it requires hiking up past the House of the Guardian, we headed back down to start walking around.

The city was divided into areas - the eastern area was probably residential and business. The western side was for religious and nobility.

I got a little confused occasionally because you do go up, down, over, across, up, down, around, and... well you get the idea.

On to more shots of ruins!
Yes I know you are beginning to think it all looks alike - and it kinda does - but it is really different I swear it is.

I am combining a few things here - more interesting structures and a lot of terraces.
The terracing just blows me away. They did it all by hand.
They started at the bottom and worked their way up, leveling and reinforcing as they went.

When you realize how steep these mountain sides are it makes your skin crawl.

Their management of water kept crops growing, stopped soil erosion, and provided a stable base for these massive structures.

We did a little side hike to the Inca Bridge

Yes, you had to go up more stairs to get to the entrance where you had to sign in with your name and time of entry.

The rest of the hike was pretty flat, just a few stairs and a little vertical but not hard at all.

There are some places where the trail is rather narrow with no guard rails or ropes, so if you have an issue with heights this might not be for you.

As with everything else here we found it pretty amazing. The work that went into making the wall support had to be brutal, and they even added Inca Steps just in case.

Not sure if I mentioned the llamas. No? Well there are llamas here.

The llamas graze on the terraces which is a nice arrangement for both their owners and the site. Local color and free grounds keeping.

The other group is US! We have proof we were there. George's cousins Livia and Peter were our companions on this trek and they were real troopers - March or Die being our motto.

Would we go back to Peru? You bet we would.