"Christianity," someone says, not talking to me. I look up instinctively from my seat on this Continental Airlines 757, its two Rolls-Royce engines translating 87,000 pounds of thrust into a soft purr. We are cruising at 39,000 feet toward heaven inside this mighty bird -- its wingspan almost half a football field in length. More than six miles below, the desert coast of Peru unwinds like a dusty ribbon along the blue Pacific. Across the aisle from me, Mark completes a crossword puzzle with quick dispatch. We flew to Peru last Wednesday on business. Now it is Sunday, and we are bringing home a … [Read more...]

It is a veritable Garden of Eden, the Spanish conquistador reported to the folks back home. Thanks to irrigation, Lima, the Peruvian capital city Francisco Pizarro founded in 1535, might still claim that title. Purple bougainvillaea bespeak a royal heritage.Yellow amancaes, red cannas and resplendent orange blossoms which I cannot identify disguise the coastal desert beneath this city of eight million souls. The city shivers from May until October under a damp cold mist the locals call the "garua." But this is November and today the sun beams down from a clear blue sky. Traffic lights … [Read more...]

Imagine three Californias and you visualize the size of Peru, where people already lived busy lives when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees. The Incas were its best-known inhabitants, ruling and thriving from approximately 1,200 A.D. until the Spaniards slaughtered Tupac Amaru, the last Inca ruler, in 1572. This is the land of Machu Picchu ("ancient peak"), the lost city of the Incas, and Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake at 12,725 feet. Peru, like Roman Gaul, is divided into three parts. Along the Pacific lies the desert coast, where one also finds most of the major cities. … [Read more...]