Ruins and cities: Peru so far...

Writing this from Lima, Peru...on the eve before I fly to Iquitos, which is in the heart of the rain forest and close to the Amazon river. Ending one stage (Incan ruins and Spanish conquest) and going into the wild.

So I will give a brief account of the visited places, impressions had and lessons learned and a couple of pics.

First a brief run down. From Mexico City, flew to Cuzco, Peru...major city of the Incas...and Spanish conquest of them. From there, travelled through the Sacred Valley...Pisac, Urumbamba, Ollantaytambo and Aqua Caliente before heading to Machu Picchu...seeing many ruins in between. Back to Cuzco and then flew to the capital Lima where we have been the past couple days.

Cuzco is a beautiful place, touristy/backpacker vibe which gives it a bit of the Disney shine, but good times. Going into the Sacred Valley, you either get more of the same on a smaller scale (Ollantaytambo and Pisac), worse (Agua Caliente) or not touristy at all (Urubamba). Ruins are spectacular...see the magnificence of the empire that was...it was relative recent history, so can still imagine people living there, working the terraces, etc. I enjoy walking around ruins, but they also tend to put me in my place...the people who created them are gone, we have no idea who they are...just what they made. Identity is lost and it's place is taken by the memory in my head I place on it.

On to Lima...foggy and cloudy all the time it seems, but like Cuzco...there seems to be some parade every twenty minutes. Great plazas and Moorish balconies...great food.

The more I travel, the feeling I get is not so much how different this place is from that one or my home... but how similar it all is, how similar people are. I don't know if this is comforting or depressing...or both.