you know the world was made for men and not us

second in the series, I'll flip over to the city of Cusco. Cusco was the seat of the Incan empire, and still many of the buildings have lower walls that were Incan-built. Of course, the spanish decided to destroy the temples and palaces and nicer buildings and use the pre-quarried stone to build their cathedrals, etc. But it's a good city for history and the nearest major city for Macchu Picchu and the Manu rainforest.

You can't really drive to Cusco from Lima. Okay, you could but it's an 8 hour arduous drive over mountains, or a 50 minute flight. We arrived in Lima at midnight and had to fly out to Cusco at 7am, so there was no use in actually going into town.

Cusco is all cobblestones, off-white stucco, and red-tiled roofs surrounded by mountains in what the locals call the "navel of the world."

the flag on the left is peru and the righthand flag is the Incan flag (Quechuan/Amaryan people). they have a lot of pride. we saw that flag planted on top of many, seemingly unreachable mountain peaks.

It's the highest elevation I've ever been at, and it showed. We walked everywhere slowly, and climbing stairs like these meant we had to pause for breath every three or four steps. The popular drink here is coca tea. It's pretty good--slightly sweet--and supposedly helps to alleviate altitude sickness, so we drank it daily.

the cusco area is fairly poor overall and just beyond the outskirts the people are primarily agrarian villagers. this woman (and her curious hat) is typical, as is the taxi next to her. taxis EVERYWHERE in cusco, racing around like there's a prize for first place.

most of the buildings were fairly plain and unadorned, yet even in poor areas the doors were often ornate and elaborate. we loved that.