They still chime the bells three times a day.

This is my meal of Cuy. Great view. Gross food. I tried, I really did, but there's not much meat, so you have to dig around the inside of the cuy (prepared only by dipping in boiling water to remove the fur, then cooked whole) and pick out the meat, which tastes... like I imagine a rat does.

The original Cusco, stone-built by the Incas, was in the shape of a Puma. Now the plaster and adobe buildings fill the valley.

The Cristo Blanco overlooking the city.

This room was where they held the Inquisition in Cusco. Notice the skull and crossbones over the archway. Now it's a painting store.

This is an archway over the road (yes road- carts and mini cars drive along it) between a cloister for nuns and an abbey for monks. They found out decades after it was built that there's a secret tunnel in the archway. They were not supposed to have contact with anyone, especially of the opposite sex, but... the call it the arch of the union.

This was on "la calle de los siete serpientes." Seven Serpent street. How'd you like to have that address?

Me and a llama.

The religion in Cusco held a belief in the "triologia," or tri-ology; the puma for strength, the serpent for wisdom, and the condor for peace. You see those three carved in a lot of buildings, like the serpents over the door here.

The Spaniards destroyed part of this wall and tried to rebuild it. You can tell their part has sunken in, crumbled, and been patched.

The Incan buildings are all still standing as originally built- no mortar, no cracks. These stones are perfectly shaped. The smaller ones at the bottom absorb tremors from regular earthquakes. All the Spanish buildings have fallen at least once.

This is "the rock of 12 angles." Fairly famous, first for its religious significance, but also as the trademark for Cusquena beer.

I arrived in Cuscu late at night, but found that my hostel that I had reservations at was just off the plaza, about 20 steps. Cusco was my favorite town.

These are the Spanish guys I met on the boat.

The Plaza de Armas in Puno

I went to talk to these guys, thinking it'd be a great chance to learn some more of the culture of the islands- all they wanted to talk about was the election.

Right as we left the island it began to rain. By the time we hit the mainland it had stopped. That was one of the two times it rained my entire trip. How cool is that?

She's spinning thread.

...where we hike to the top of the island. This was the first serious walking I'd done, and the elevation was killing me.

Then the 2 hour motor boat ride (Lake Titicaca's huge!) to the island of Taquile. No, not Tequila.

Freddy's wife is the one in the red jacket. I'd like to think that when they sang to us as we left the island it was very authentic, but I'm sure they do it for all the tourists.

Freddy seeing us off in the reed boat.

Their new kitchen. Freddy and his wife used to live on another island, but the mainland authorities were doing some "controlled" burning on a neighboring island, and the flames hopped to his.

Freddy was making miniature boats from strands of reed and thread.

I forget her name, but this is Freddy's daughter. She's learning to weave.

This is my second experience eating stick. The first was (unknown to me until I bit into it) sugar cane from a Mexican guy in California. This was the root end of an Uros reed. Much more bitter.

Living on the islands is a very simple, comfortable life. Everyone's barefoot.

One of the floating islands. The red-roofed building is the local school.

The reeds on Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca

Here you go, mom- the lighthouse, er, lamp on lake Titicaca.

Then I went to Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. I went to another cheap place. Maybe a little too cheap. "Hot water 24/7" apparently means wires coming out of the wall heating the pipe above your head. Yep. I got shocked.

Cuy.

This is a piece of beautiful engineering. To wash their clothes they'd come to these basins, stick their hand in to dam the water, it would rise to the level of the pipe opening, and start filling the basin.

The convent has been painted since it was opened as a museum, but that's about the only upgrade. It made for some nice artsy pictures.

The kitchens. Those cubby holes underneath are where they would breed and keep the cuy (guinea pigs). Nice and handy when you wanted to make a quick midnight snack.

A water purifier. After 3 hours of water seeping through the stone, about 2 liters of purified water is collected.

The monastery is like a town in a town. It's got it's own small streets, even.

it also had plenty of original paintings. These were around the courtyard, painted to help the girls memorize certain phrases if they weren't good at reading. 55 phrases, 55 paintings around the courtyard.

This is a tour of an old convent. Part is still blocked off, where the nuns live in seclusion today. This is where the second child, if she were a daughter, would have been forced to live until sometime in the mid 1700s when it became mandatory from age 10 to 14, then one could choose to stay or not.

This room is where they would have the little contact with the outside world the higher-ups were allowed- through wooden slats.