We can start this as a story about the altitude. At the airport in Lima, I was gripped by a sudden fear that I was going to develop extreme altitude sickness when I landed in Cusco. Everyone says you should ascend slowly, but I wasn’t doing that, I was going straight from sea level to 11,000 feet. I panic-bought some altitude-sickness pills and took Advil to ward off a potential headache before the short hour-long flight to Cusco. When the flight landed, I stood up and realiz

Sacsayhuaman, in Cusco There’s a chart in the largest archeological museum in Lima listing the eras of indigenous history in Peru next to corresponding events in western history. I pride myself on being a well-educated person, but I recognized none of the ten or so civilizations that existed in northwestern South America during the times of Augustus, Charlemagne, Suleiman. The education I’ve received has been a classically western one. I tried to supplement my education with