Peru

Snowbird friends, Harold & Julie, who spent last year's Minnesota winter in Cuenca, passed this winter in Peru.  They invited us to come and do some exploring with them while they were there.  So, we  spent 10 days in Peru.

Our first stop was Lima where we had great ceviche, saw Pachacamac - an ancient site that includes ruins from as far back as the Lima period and up through the Incas - visited "Lover's Park" and had an all around great time.

Pachacamac

Pachacamac

The famous hairless dogs of the Incas.  This one has skin cancer.  They have no hair to protect their skin, and they don't wear sunscreen.

A man walking his llamas and alpacas at Pachacamac

This is what all of Lima would look like if not for irrigation.  Although it is right on the ocean, it is a desert.

Having ceviche at La Mar.  La Mar also has a restaurant in San Francisco, the first of Gaston's restaurants outside of Lima, and where we used to enjoy going to ceviche.  Delicious!!

Kicking up his heels in Lima.

Lover's Park, with its serpentine mosaic wall covered with lovey-dovey sayings.

Due to irrigation, all over Lima, a city of 9 million people, there are beautiful parks.

 Then we headed for Cuzco, the Sacred Valley and Macchu Picchu.

Cuzco is a lovely historic town that has a very good tourist infrastructure.  It's much more tourist friendly than it was 11 years ago when I (Deborah) visited there.  Peru has done a lot to encourage tourism, as well it should, since the whole country is an archaeological site with amazing ruins and history throughout. 

The intrepid explorers at Macchu Picchu.

Harold heading into the magnificent city of Macchu Picchu.

Macchu Picchu

Inca terraces at Pisac in the Sacred Valley

The magnificent scale of Macchu Picchu.  This colored dots are people!

Macchu Picchu

The giant interconnecting stone at Sacsayhauman.  How did the do that?  You couldn't even squeeze a dime between some of these stones, and they did not use any mortar.

We had a wonderful time, and we have a lot of things left to see in Peru, so we will have to go back again.