WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN LATELY? PERU

Cuzco, at 11,000 feet, is one of the highest cities in the world. One of our tour guides turned out to be a city councilman in Cuzco. He took me to city hall. It was like a miniature of any other city hall, people carrying blueprints, trying to get permits. I loved it because I’m a city planner by training. From Cuzco we took a train to the base of Machu Picchu, then a bus to the top. It shows a remarkably sophisticated understanding of astronomy.

DISCOVERY: In Lima, if you go with an organized trip, they can get you into the Gold Museum. Even more exciting than that pre-Columbian stuff is their ceramics from the same period. In modern America, many pieces would be considered indecent. But some are very funny.