So I went to Peru

Life is Good!

---

Only feet away from the airport, someone was already trying to sell us something. Life is less good for over half the country, which lives under the poverty line.

The burbs

---

Most of Lima's population lives in dense areas outside the downtown.

Smog

---

Lima is reminded about the dangers of smoking.

The capital

---

Lima's capital building prepares for a demonstration from a group of union members and pensioners, both of whom are unhappy about Peruvian economic arrangements, which has been on a path of steady liberalization (a free trade agreement with the U.S. is expected this year).

Tour guide

---

This was the first of three guides who herded us around, dropped interesting historical annecdotes, and put up with our sophomoric antics. Becoming a tour guide is increasingly a popular career path in Peru, as tourism brings a great deal of money to the country annually. Many colleges confer degrees in the specific field of tour guiding. While the pay is decent, according to our last guide, Harvey, the hours are awful. His partner was due to give birth to his daughter while he was taking us around Cusco. Tangentially of note, white bread names like "Harvey" were highly popular in Peru in the '70s. Our bus driver was named Bob.

Elite

---

Lima has its share of centuries old mansions for Creole nobility. This guy lived in one one we visited, along with his hermetically sealed religious sculptures.

Elite too

---

One family still owns this property, and occasionally lives here.

Local religious art

---

Rather than importing gigantic devotional paintings from Europe, colonial "settlers" set up workshops to teach converts to work in a European style. The result, here, depicts Jesus firing his high powered stigmata lasers.

Monk skulls

---

These disembodied heads are spending eternity with thousands of peers in the catecombs beneath a monestary near Lima.

Zack

---

People like this are all over Peru.

Old yeller

---

Dogs, like this poor guy, are everywhere. Though there are numerous public posters offering free anti-rabies shots, I didn't see any free spay and neuter services similarly advertized.

Stadium

---

Gallatinos peer over a horrifying sheer cliff, one of many in Peru.

Peru rail

---

The rail system in Peru seems to be used for tourism much more so than cargo transportation. It is, after all, the best way to get up to city. It means, however, that most trains have only one car, making them look rather silly.

Machu Pichu

---

The obligatory vantage of the city.

Weed whackers

---

Small inlets in the stones around Machu Pichu conceal a variety of gardening implements for keeping the ancient lawns pristine.

Camelid

---

This is likely an Alpaca, but it is certainly of the family camelidae, which includes the likes of camels, llamas, vicunas, and other shaggy spitting things. The Camelid pictured lived with several of these other species in a petting zoo near Cuzco, where men with whips dole out handfuls of feed-grade alfalfa to pale tourists, stopping intermittently to lash ferociously at camelidae that nibbled at his bunch.