Across the ocean blue, me and you, we're dancing in the street

Yes, of course we went there.

By some great bit of good luck we had, inadvertantly but so fortuitously, arrived in Cusco in the month in which, exactly 100 years ago, Hiram Bingham rediscovered the the pride of Peru, the lost city of Machu Picchu. May I assume you know what Machu Picchu is?

Far and away Machu Picchu is the reason nearly 2 million people come each year from all over the world to Cusco. It is the closest city to the ruins, and, I must say, as a cultural gem of a city and the oldest continuously inhabited city in the western hemisphere, a destination in itself. But Machu Picchu is the real draw.
 
So they were throwing a Hundred Years Party.

I had never been to Cusco before, had, embarassingly, never even heard of it until I started planning our trip. Cusco was the capital of the Incan World, known to them as the naval of the Earth. I'll tell you more about that later, for now, I think it may be safe to say that the Hundred Years party was not terribly unlike a hundred year flood. What. a. sight.

Many of the streets were blocked off from cars, swelling instead with dancers and musicians and more dancers and people, ever so many people.

The costumes were elaborate and bright, masked performers telling through dance stories that we didn't know but with which the crowd was obviously familiar. Some gruesome or grotesquely sinister, others beautiful. I wished we had someone to explain it all to us.

I was quietly stroking out at the photo ops...everywhere I looked there was color swirling, the sights and smells and sounds, and all of it new and exciting. In fact, I'm going to stop writing and let you enjoy the photos without any more commentary from the likes of me. Do enjoy.

We did.