Friday evening after we closed the clinic we had a dinner with the interpreters and said goodbye then flew out early morning to Lima. Eleven of us stayed over and continued on by flight to Cusco--a historic and very picturesque city high in the Andes Mountains.I really liked Cusco. Although in recent years the tourist swarm to Machu Picchu has resulted in an enormous tourist trade here the city has handled it well and retained its local color and traditions. It is a very old city and has what is often called one of South America's most beautiful plazas and cathedrals. From what I've seen I'd tend to agree.....
We spent Saturday afternoon prowling around the old narrow streets, exploring the numerous churches, and shopping in the little stores around the plazas. We stayed at the Royal Inca Hotel which was really nice but most noticeably for the artwork throughout the hotel. We all drank the famous coca tea which is allegedly a good cure for altitude sickness and we had just flown from sea level to 11,000 feet.
On Sunday we took a bus about an hour up into the Andes to a village known for its weekend crafts market. Pisac is a popular tourist destination and frankly the crafts weren't all that great so I ended up spending the last hour wandering around taking pictures of the children. They dress in native clothing and pose for photos with baby animals or llamas in return for coins.Pisac is located above the Sacred Valley and as we drove up we
stopped at a commune that displays
traditional weaving and sewing and has an alpaca farm.For some reason I had known that llamas and alpacas were related to camels but until I saw them closeup I didn't
realize just how similar they were. There are seven varieties of alpaca with the most sought after species having hair so thin it takes eight strands woven together to equal the size of one human hair--which is why alpaca sweaters are so soft.....and expensive. We spent a couple of hours with a guide as he took us through the commune and fed and petted the animals. Despite their reputation for spitting they were very docile and loved to be 
hand-fed. The commune also featured a trail where women were stationed at different locations demonstrating the ancient weaving techniques. Peru is famous for its beautiful and colorful rugs, fabrics and mats.Saturday night we ate at a restaurant on the main plaza overlooking the cathedral with the hills of Cusco in the background lit up with lights. It was an amazing sight and we had the 
traditional Peruvian music and dancers (remember Zamphir and the Andes pipe music?) On the buffet I tried alpaca meat but frankly, it wasn't very good.
Sunday we were up early and took a bus to the Cusco train station and then a 3 1/2 hour train ride up to Machu Picchu. The train was very modern and very comfortable. The grade was very steep and the speed was usually very slow so the group just relaxed, joked around and had a good time until we reached the summit.
I don't remember when I saw my first photo of Machu Picchu but I remember telling myself it was a place I wanted to visit one day. Usually those goals turn out to be less than expected but not so here.....Machu Picchu exceeded all my expectations.
We had an excellent guide who walked us through the ruins and explained the known facts of the ancient culture here. Like Stonehenge in England, so much is unexplained here but modern science has confirmed the Incas here had an uncanny knowledge of the solar system and the movements of the sun and moon.
Machu Picchu is one of those world heritage sites that is being "loved to death" by tourists but unlike at Angkor Wat in Cambodia the Peruvian
government is trying to regulate visitation. Other than the train, the only access is through the Inca Hiking Trail so regulating the number of trains each day has eased the crowding. It is very well planned--each guide follows a different route through the ruins so you meet up with a lot of other tourists as you are walking but the important places usually only have one group at a time.We spent three hours on the tour which can be pretty challenging for a flatlander like myself then we had an hour to prowl on our own. Our group decided to stay together and we climbed up to the very top of the ruins to the stone building thought to be a guard house. It is here that all the "calendar" and "screensaver" photos are taken and I got some great pictures. It took us
about an hour to do that so when we got back to the train station we grabbed a quick lunch and then rode the train back down the mountain to Cusco.We caught an early morning flight back to Lima on Monday and spent several hours resting up. We stayed at a really nice youth hostel in the Lima suburb of Miraflores about three blocks from the Pacific ocean. Someone found an American-style mall on the ocean that had a Tony Roma's and we all had rib dinners overlooking the ocean. We then caught a midnight flight back to Houston and split up our different directions.
But as we were leaving the hostel for the airport a bus load of people in medical scrubs were unloading their luggage to check into the hostel. Turned out they were a group of 57 people on a medical mission going up into the mountains to provide services to some poor village.....
When I got back to Houston I read where a 7.7 earthquake had hit northern Chile. I guess the need for assistance will not end soon......
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