Ica is also home to an English-speaking desert aristocracy, many of
whom attended U.S. universities and now maintain the region's
prolific vineyards. Peruvian horses (caballos de paso), with their
stylized gallop, are bred here, but dune buggies are probably a
more popular means of transport, especially east of the Paracas
peninsula, where the dunes are shaped like enormous waves of
sand.
The next best thing to seeing the Nazca Lines from the air is to
rent a boat at Paracas and
head for the nearby nature reserve,
which is home to pelicans, cormorants, and playful seals that love
to swim alongside people. But the most impressive site on the
Paracas peninsula undoubtedly is The Candelabra, or Three Crosses,
a Nazca-like symbol thought to have been a guide for sailors.
Airborne once more, the jet turns north and heads along the Andean
spine of the country. The Inca Empire when Francisco Pizarro
arrived was the most prosperous civilization in the Western
Hemisphere. It extended almost 2,500 miles from present-day
Colombia to central
Chile, and was administered from the Andean
city of Cuzco, which the Incas called the navel of the world.
We arrive in Cuzco late in the afternoon. While the Travel Channel
camera crew photographs the
President reviewing the troops, I enjoy
a (perfectly legal) cup of coca tea, a
beverage routinely offered
to new arrivals at this 11,000-foot-high city since it helps
prevent altitude sickness.
Our destination that evening is Ollantaytambo, a fortified Incan
city an hour's drive from Cuzco. That our journey would be
uneventful is a source of tremendous satisfaction to the President.
"Maoist guerillas with the
Shining Path insurgency once owned the
night, but no longer,"
Toledo smiles. "Peru lost $35 billion and
30,000 lives, but now our mountains are safe."