I slept better last night than I have in months. Months! This includes time in my own wonderful bed. Our accommodations at the Hotel Pakaritampu were great. First of all, it is situated in a climate much like Northern California. The air was dry, cool and crisp—no air conditioning is needed. A soothing-sounding natural steam ran all night long through a stone lined channel built many centuries ago by the Incas. It sang us to sleep and blocked any unnatur...

This is an astoundingly beautiful place! Much of God's world is but this place is full of color, mountains, valleys and history. To me it is the highlight of our trip so far. Imagine walking around towns with stone streets and town buildings originally built in the 1500's Some have foundations and walls, however, built maybe 500 years earlier by the Incas. As you recall from history lessons, the Incas where highly intelligent people whose primary occupation ...

We are spending a total of 31 days in South America which is a long time. But a month is not nearly enough to see all one should see to comprehend it all—even when only a few countries are being visited. We saw important places in Cusco today but after a few hours, it all began to run together and the facts became merely "wows!" Cusco was once the center of the Inca Empire. Its name has reference to being center. At one time the Inca Empire stretched from ...

We left Amazonas Lodge this morning. Even though the weather was much better than when we arrived, the two-hour boat trip down river and our van transport back to Puerto Maldonado seemed even longer than the trip to the lodge a few days ago. Plus this time I realized that some of the primitive open air, one-room buildings on dirt lots we passed in route to the river were not abandoned huts but are actual homes to families. In a land where there are so many nat...

After all the excitement yesterday, a little bit cooler temperatures, a great dinner and a little wine, we slept much better at last. We woke at 5:00 to dress for our first adventure scheduled for 5:30 am. A bat flew out of the bathroom, and a green frong was on the bedroom wall. Welcome to the jungle. I stated before that our lodge is primitive but I must add that this characteristic in entitely deliberate. This lodge, the Posada Amazonas, is one of the fe...