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After the recording stopped, Santi suggested that I read the The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQaurrie. I was finishing a pretty boring book that took me forever, so I started the Inca book a bit late (like the day before we left). In fact, I didn’t finish it until my last day in Peru. It was truly amazing. Like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee or King Leopold’s Ghost, it quickly became one of the most interesting books I’ve read. In all three cases, the greed of colonialism led to unspeakable horrors for the people that lived in Congo, the US, or South America before they were “discovered” by Europeans willing to do anything for wealth. I highly recommend all three of them if you have ANY interest at all. What I was taught in school about which “explorers” discovered different parts of the “new world” was a highly sanitized and glorified version of what these monsters did.
<< Off my soapbox >>
Machu Picchu was on my list of places to visit for a really long time. I’ve seen ancient ruins in several places, but the remoteness and mystery surrounding it always appealed to me. When Santi mentioned the book, I purchased it that night. In Lima, Cusco, and the Sacred Valley, the influence and history of the Inca is something many people seemed really proud to share. The Inca seemed different that what (little) I know of the Maya and Aztecs. A few bad decisions by the Inca king(s) led to the fall of a vast empire that didn’t actually last that long.
Although we didn’t discuss it in the interview, it would be a shame to visit Peru without trying to understand and witness the legacy of the Inca throughout the country. To me, it made Peru a really special place to visit and spend time.
The keywords in each photo describe where the photos were taken. Of course, there’s Machu Micchu. However, we visited some ruins inside Lima and many other places throughout Peru.
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The Larco Museum in Lima is full of some amazing art. Your admission to the museum also includes admission to the “other” museum – La Galería Erótica. Yep, it’s appropriately “around the corner, down he stairs, in the basement”. As you look through the gallery, you’ll see a lot of erotic art. There is a collection of fellatio art. This one makes me chuckle. Both facial expressions are hilarious to me. Anyway….
