Photos: Captioned by Hans, Who Warns You That He Is Sick, and Consequently Not at the Top of His Game.

The three of us, looking our best on the drive from Cuiaba to Cusco.

Our hotel, the night before we entered Peru. As you can see, we stay in only the best.

One view of the city of Cusco. Incas built all that.

They built this, too. Longer ago than that other stuff.

This is the sort of ghastly landscape we've been dealing with. Your sympathy is appreciated.

Some of these terraces were built for purposes of ornamentation. Kind of makes shutters and flower-beds seem less of a pain.

More ornamentation, yo.

Machu Piccu at dawn. Lest you begin to feel inferior on account of the Incas upstaging your cosmetic
landscaping with their terraces, be reminded that these people thought the ideal place to build a city was smack dab on the top of a mountain. You know, just to work extra. 

Here's the view from Machu Piccu Mountain, the unofficial inspiration for  J.R.R Tolkien's Endless Stair. Unlike
LOTR, though, your reward is a fantastic view, not a grim passage through Cair Ungol into the land of fire. 

Inspired, we built this puppy out of LegoTM bricks on a nearby mountaintop. Except we didn't.
More to the point, everyone says to get up early to beat the crowds to the ruins. We got up at 4:30, to find that
no one is as interested in beating the crowds as....the crowds. Afternoon is better.

The Incas did not, in fact, build this. God did. 

This is what happens when you build a bridge five feet above the regular levels of a
tempestuous, flood-prone mountain river. You use the bridge for a year. You use a steel-frame
cable-car contraption after that, and leave the ruins of the bridge as a reminder that in architecture,
as in business, the first three rules are Location, Location, Location. 

Here is a city the Incas built further out, higher up, and less accessibly than Maccu Pichu,
presumably to prove it could be done. 

Sheldon, in front of quite possibly the most impressive ruined building we saw in Peru. 

Here's me, in front of the least-impressive hotel we stayed in in Peru. I'm lashing wood to  the frame of the car
in order to prop up the hood in another futile effort to combat vapor lock.

Choquequirao. Aaron arrives right at the end of the camera timer.

Aaron, who appears to have spotted something less pleasing than Choquequirao's magnificent ruins.

These, also, were for decoration. 

Here we are with Celestino and the horses. All smiles and hopes for selling the car. Except perhaps the horses, who
had done all the climbing for us. 

St. Phoenix, looking her best, over 15,000 feet, on the long ride to Chivay.

Just the roadside scenery. The Incas did not build this.

Colca Canyon. Twice as deep as the grand, but we felt like there was a reason they didn't call it the Grand Colca Canyon.

We take risks. We stand on walls. In front of canyons twice as deep as the Grand Canyon.

And then sometimes, we take too many risks. 

If you can't go around it, just bust a big ol' hole right through it.

Lake Titicaca, with Puno in the background. Those ships were designed to go about 3 miles per hour. We asked, and were informed that the design was such that any attempt to go faster would lead not to acceleration, but just a bigger wave. Sigh.

Aaron, looking happier than Choquequirao in front of an island, a boat, and houses all made from Reeds.

The Andes, showing off from the far shore.

We kept trying to take pictures of La Paz. We kept taking pictures of traffic.

The street outside our hostel. Busy, grimy, and pretty exciting. Less exciting when the hostel plays  10,000 decibel
dance music until 4 AM. But you take the bad with the good.