Welcome to Peru
On March 13, 2008 Chaline Johnson, a longtime friend and colleague from Yale and I set out for Peru with Overseas Adventure Travel
http://www.oattravel.com/, 15 intrepid travelers and a terrific Peruvian guide, Raul Jaimes who was the heart and soul of our trip. Thanks to the small group size, our little van was able to bounce along country roads where the grand tourismo buses can't.
The Miraflores Antigua, our hotel, is a small, family-owned garden spot in the middle of Lima.
We started in Lima with a visit to the Anthropology Museum which is filled with pottery, mummies, weaving, costumes, and dioramas where we had an introduction to the history of the area: Pre-Incan to the Spanish conquest of Peru.
Later we visited the Larco Museum which contains more examples of Inca artistry as well as the erotic exhibit of racy Peruvian pottery and has a first class restaurant. 
Cebiche is a Peruvian staple.
The huge 15th C Monastery of San Francisco has a frangipani-filled cloister, tiles from Seville, catacombs full of bones of those who died in a big earthquake, and a magnificent library open to the air, which is deteriorating steadily.
The town is filled with lovely old colonial buildings slowly being renovated around the hub of the Plaza de Armas, a fine square bordered by the presidential palace and other stately buildings guarded by water hose -bearing tanks.
Rosa and her Mother were preparing for Palm Sunday
The city of Lima sits atop a cliff.
After visiting the fishing village near Lima, more city sites, and the lovely promenade by the Pacific, we flew to Cuzco where we were challenged with an altitude of 10,900 ft. We hopped in our van and headed for the Sacred Valley at a lower altitude driving through beautiful Andean countryside and farmland.
Llama, Vicuna, Guanico-all members of the camelid family.....
Each village has its own weaving patterns
The Pisac Sunday market
Inca "hanging gardens" outside Pisac with extensive terracing for farming and elaborate irrigation system. This musician's evocative songs wafted over the valley as we walked about.
Casona Yucay, our hotel in the Sacred Valley was an 18th C home. The women in the courtyard spent their days crochetting and knitting.
Bargaining for 3 hats.......
An afternoon rafting on the Urambamba river-class I and II, was tame stuff compared to the same river in the Machu Picchu area.
If you look carefully you can see the guardhouse on this cliff above Ollantaytambo, the site of extensive ruins with graneries, barracks, baths for royalty, and the requisite irrigation system and terraced areas.
Climbing was an Inca way of life and they used every inch of the mountainside. They didn't use the wheel, so stones and boulders for their buildings were carried by sledges and manpower.
We stopped at a home brewery for chicha- corn beer made on a traditional clay stove
Cats everywhere love a warm fire.......
Another stop for a ride in a pedi-taxi, a common means of transport in towns with lots of people who can't afford cars.
Guinea pig (cuy) is a Peruvian delicacy which we were served at a home-hosted dinner.
At last we were ready for Machu Picchu, having been prepared by the ruins at Pisac and Ollantaytambo. We took the afternoon Vistadome train from Ollan for a 1 1/2 hour ride alongside the roiling Urambomba river to Aguas Caliente, a funky little town whose main purpose is to provide the mini buses that transport 3000 hardy souls a day (in high season) to the ruins far above along switchback roads with no guardrails. Soon we were literally in the clouds......... and there was a rainbow to welcome us.
Arriving as we did in the mid-afternoon, the crowds had departed and by the 5pm closing it was just us and the Inka spirits.
The sun temple
Bargaining for 3 hats.......
Climbing was an Inca way of life and they used every inch of the mountainside. They didn't use the wheel, so stones and boulders for their buildings were carried by sledges and manpower. 
The sun temple
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