(continued from "My Name is Forever Carved" part 9) The world we thought we knew collided with a very different world. Each of us was struggling with the dawning of the rest of our lives. The students and I had been changed, were…

(continued from "Life in the Andean Lodge" part 8) "Over the river and through the woods" (literally) were the homes of families who had been selected to be the recipients of 3 mud-brick stoves. More than just a fun activity for…

(continued from "Peru Comfort Food" part 7)After you've been sick for a while, you get weak and shakey. The first thing to do was to get my son to stand, then walk, then exit the hotel without falling down the stairs. (no elevator)…

(continued from "At Least He Could Walk in to the Village Hosptal part 6)Within an hour of settling in the room, my son started throwing up violently, over and over all night. Then the diarrhea started and there were times when…

(continued from "Traveling Where the Paved Road Ends" part 5)Everything was dark except for one lighted sign in the rear of the hospital. The word "Emergencia" glowed in the darkness. After the bus arrived in Chota, the rest of…

(continued from "Off To Northern Peru," part 4) In spite of the fever, we decided to continue with our planned itinerary. We would take the local equivalent of a Greyhound bus and travel all day over a really big mountain pass…

(continue from "Our Guide, Our Mother and Our Chicha Beer" part 3)Before leaving the hotel for the Cusco airport, Vidal told me privately that my son did not have altitude sickness. Vidal was confident that my son had some kind…

By Vidal Jaquehua It took me a while to write my story, but here we go. I been working in tourism for over 20 years as a licensed guide.  At the beginning for some compànies based here in Cusco, and then for some companies that…

(continued from "Our Guide, Our Mother and Our Chicha Beer" part 2)Vidal would be our guide, our mother and our angel, day and night, for the next week as we walked, drove and toured our way through Cusco, Sacsayhuaman (pronounced…

(continued from part 1)The next morning, we filtered down to breakfast and boarded the van to return to the airport where we would fly to the city of Cusco at 11,000 feet above sea level.  Maneuvering a herd of teen-agers was…