This is Dave in front of San Francisco Church in Lima, which is home to countless pigeons, and sits above catacombs where hundreds of thousands of people are buried.

This in the sacristy of the San Francisco Church.  This monk was beheaded, probably because his name was "Noel" but he kept spelling it backwards.

This is from the catacombs - they are real bones and skulls arranged by archaeologists.

This is Jen in the Museo de Antropologie and Arcitectur.  Well, I can't spell in Spanish, so it's really the Museum of Anthropology and Architecture.  The carving shows a single figure with 3 holy animals, the condor, puma, and snake.  The condor is heaven, puma is earth, and the snake is the under-region.  Jen is the wife.

This is a real mummy.  The Incans (who actually like to be called Andeans or Ketchuan (pronounced catch-you-in) believe you should exit the world in the same position in which you spent your high tech career in the 90's, the fetal position.

Trepanation is a cool Incan decorative thing they did to living people who pissed off the police.  This was their version of Rodney King.  Another more common theory is that these surgeries were done after wars to treat brain injuries, and 40-60% of people who had trepanations survived.  They covered the hole with gold foil.  I'm waiting for this to catch on in San Francisco  tattoo parlors.

These are the skulls of salespeople who tried to sell Amway to Incans.  Either that, or they are the skulls of royalty.  They bound the babies to a board and tied their heads tightly to create unusual skull shapes, which were a mark of royalty.

This is obviously a statue of Dave.  People prayed to him for fertility.

This is obviously a statue of Jen.  People prayed to her for forgiveness after she saw their web pages.

This is Jen, and the other one is a real shrunken head.  I think that's Jen in the front! :)

This is Dave on the balcony of our hotel room in Aguas Calientes, the last city before Machu Picchu, only accessible by train.  It is at 9000 ft elevation, in the bottom of a 1000 foot gorge.  And it has internet access!

This is Jen in Aguas Calientes, standing on a bridge overlooking the water of a small stream that ran on the edge of town.

This is Jen near the entrance to Machu Picchu.  Either that, or we were in a studio the whole time, and this is a green screen!  We climbed to the top of the large hill to the right!  MP was abandoned about 600 years ago, when the evil Spaniards invaded Peru, killed the Incans, stole their gold, and tore down their temples and used the stones to build churches.

This is Jen looking very pissed off because I made her stand by the edge, and she is afraid of heights.  It was a long way to fall!

This is Jen and me together at the edge of Machu Picchu overlooking a huge valley.

This is Jen and me standing in front of the most holy stone at Machu Picchu. Legend has it that you are supposed to touch your forehead to the stone to receive enlightenment from the gods that live in the stone.  Unfortunately, it is roped off, but I waited until the guards weren't looking, and touched my forehead to the rock.  The only enlightenment I got was gravel stuck to my forehead, but I'm still waiting...

The Spaniards destroyed similar rocks in every other temple in Peru - when a rock is cracked, the gods are supposed to leave the area.

Another view of the rock, showing its shape better.  This picture also shows Jen's shape better, which I frankly think is more pleasing than the rock.

This is me standing on the edge of a huge cliff, halfway up that large mountain behind Machu Picchu, called Humayun Picchu.  Jen wouldn't come close to this edge.  It's hard to see the scale of the mountains behind me, but all I can say is that the Andes make Yosemite and the Grand Canyon look like children's toys.  EVERY mountain is incredible.

These are the ruins at the top of Humayun Picchu.

This is me standing at the edge of the top of Humayun Picchu, and to my left (your right) are 600 year old Incan terraces in place to prevent erosion.  About 2500 feet below is the river.  Humayun Picchu is about 1500 feet above Machu Picchu.

This is Jen at the highest point on Humayun Picchu - 2800 meters.  That look on her face is the result of 4 years in a sorority, as she can smile no matter what she is thinking.  At the time, she was thinking "why did that jerk of a husband of mine make me climb this freakin' rock?  I'm going to DIE!"

Another of Jen and me at the top of Humayun Picchu.

Jen at the top of Humayun Picchu, looking down on Macchu Picchu (center in the picture). The trail to the left is the bus road from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu.

The final steps to the top of Humayun Picchu.  It was STEEP!  And Incans had small feet, because those stairs didn't really have enough room for my size 17 feet.

A view looking down on Machu Picchu that shows some of the scale of the place.

On the return hike from Humayun Picchu to Machu Picchu, we saw a rainbow.

On the same hike, two minutes later, we saw this.  It was far enough away that we didn't really get very wet.

Yet another view of Machu Picchu and Humayun Picchu.

The next day, we took a bus tour of the markets and temples around Cusco.  This cute little girl informed me that, after I took her picture, she would tear off my legs and eat them if I did not give her one sole for taking her picture.  A sole is not a part of a shoe; it's the currency in Peru, at the time of this trip, the exchange rate was 3.45 soles to one US $.

This is another ruin, partway completed when the Spaniards invaded.  The huge slabs behind us are on rollers and are engineered to survive large earthquakes using the same techniques we use in big buildings now.

This picture is cool.  Right above Jen's head is a grain storage facility that had enough food to meet 90 years worth of local requirements.  To the left of that is a face that is carved in the rock.  On the day of the solstice, something cool with shadows happens to the face.  Further up on the left out of the field of view of this picture is yet another face carved in the mountain, and on the day of the solstice, the sun shines through the eye of that face and hits the main temple.

An Andean sunset.

At a holy site called the labyrinth, we are standing in a cave next to the altar where they sacrificed llamas.  They didn't sacrifice people here, because people tended to cuss a lot when you try to sacrifice them.  They also prepared their mummies in this cave.

This is another part of the labyrinth.  In the Andean version of groundhog day, on the summer solstice, the priest would mix fresh corn beer and llamas blood and pour it into the top of this channel.  If it went left, it would be a good year, and if it went right, it would be a bad year.  I guess it went right the year the Spaniards came!

This is Jen and me the day after the bus trip.  We rode horses to 5 different temples.  You can tell my horse is pissed off by the way its ears are pointed.  I think he didn't like carrying someone as heavy as me.

This is the fertility temple.  A natural spring comes out at the top and runs down.  You drink the water to become more fertile.  I had a sip.  Jen drank 2 gallons, bathed in it, soaked her hair in it, and tried to bring some home in a hefty bag.

This is Jen and I at the bottom of a cave in another ruin.

This massive formation is at Sachsayhuaman, pronounced "Sexy Woman" (no joke!)  This was the largest temple.  The name translates to "satisfied head" which means it was a temple of knowledge.  The largest rocks here weigh 120 tons and were allegedly moved by hand.  This very large rock is a part of a large underground formation, and is considered the most powerful rock at the place.  It has crystals embedded in it, and you get blessed if you touch your forehead to the middle one and touch your hands to the other two.  This is the site of the famous summer solstice celebration which draws 50,000-100,000 tourists each year.

The damn crystals are set for short people.  Discrimination I say!  And they had no size 17 llama sliippers.

This is the doorway of the sun, the most holy doorway at Sachsayhuaman.  All the walls here were 40-50 feet high, but the Spaniards stole all the smaller rocks to make churches.

This is my Sachsayhuaman by some flowers at Sachsayhuaman.