The day after we finished our program visits we made a long drive from Andahuaylas to Cusco.....mountains, mountains, mountains. An up and down day as we sped over passes at 13,000 feet and crossed swirling rivers in valleys at 6,000 feet. Half our distance that day was on dusty unpaved roads and half on narrow paved lanes. We stopped for a lunch of vegetables and trout in Abancay and pulled into Cusco well after dark......10 hours of driving to go approximately 250 miles. Not to say that the day wasn't exciting.....we had a driver who seemed to be practicing for the Monaco grand prix, the scenery was outstanding and we caught glimpses of the Southern Cross rising in the night sky as darkness set in and the Milky Way began to glow. We passed people herding pigs along the road, stopped to see Inca ruins in the form of a hilltop shrine with a map of the Inca world carved into a huge stone atop a series of steps down which holy water flowed during ceremonies of long ago.....saw busloads of travelers surrounding two people fighting over what appeared to be a cow struck by one of the buses......plenty of excitement for one long and tiring travel day.
We got to rest the next morning in Cusco before joining a city tour to visit the 16th century cathedral that sits atop an Inca ceremonial center. Also visited the Temple of the Sun which rests at the bellybutton center of the Inca Empire and upon which the conquering Spanish built a monastery still in use today.
A short distance outside the city center the ruins of Sacsahuayman (David pictured left) were truly impressive....classic Inca construction of huge stones fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle (pictured right) to create walls reflecting the jagged shape of a lightning bolt. This site was 
so amazing that Sarah and I went back again on our final day in Cusco.....pondering and wondering how anyone anytime could have fitted together such giant stones with such precision.We got up early early the next day for the trip to Machu Picchu. The rains earlier in the year had caused mudslides and sections of the railway between Cusco and the Machu Picchu to collapse...so the first part of the 4-hour trip was by bus and the last hour and a half by rail. The rail descended through cloud forests deep into the Urubamba river valley. Towering vertical peaks covered with bromeliads created a mystical landscape. A switchback road from the valley floor climbed to the park entrance and then a long arduous climb up steep stone steps brought us to the overlook of the Lost City. The pictures are worth more than their thousand words here. So incredible that such a place is so isolated from all current population centers that this great ceremonial city somehow disappeared into the rainforest and was only rediscovered a hundred years ago.
We walked among the hordes of tourists openmouthed with wonder even as our imaginations strolled through what this magical place must have been like when it was peopled with the Incan elite. Our knowledgeable guide filled us with ideas as to what that life might have entailed and simultaneously joked about ways to find the hidden Inca treasures that legend says are still hidden in the surrounding jungle. We bought his book and hereby pledge that if it does lead us to lost Incan treasures, we will donate our findings to World Neighbors!
The day in Machu Picchu brought our World Neighbors journey to an end. Chris Price returned to Cusco the same day while Sarah and I stayed on in Aguas Calientes to breathe the rarified air a bit more, reflect on our World Neighbors visits and prepare for a little personal time touring Peru.
The amazing program days still resonate in our memories....the thankful faces, the community celebrations. Peru is a country of great contrast and diversity. World Neighbors does exceptional work here. We look forward to another visit, to more inspiring people....to doing what we all can to make this a better world.
- David Bearden
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