The Inca Empire thrived in the tallest mountains in the western hemisphere over 500 years ago. How did they feed, clothe and provide housing for 12 million people? We began our investigation with a visit to the Andean Weaving Institute in Chincheros, a cooperative operated by a group of…
Several million people travel to Cusco each year for a chance to visit Machu Picchu. Indeed, we are among them. But before joining the throngs of international visitors descending into the sacred valley on their pilgrimage toward one of the 7 Wonders of the World, we opted for…
We began our adventure in the Andes, tallest mountains in the Western Hemisphere, with an afternoon tour of Sacsayhuaman. This epic archaeological site is perched above the city of Cusco. Built by the Inca civilization, it features a three-layered string of giant stones shaped like a lightning bolt and…
The students finished their time in Lima, Peru’s bustling capital, with exams, language practice, a visit to a fortress, a tour of downtown and a workshop on jewelry-making. Eliana and Ricardo Mauriola Carrasco supplement their family’s income by producing custom-made jewelry from seeds collected in the rainforest. Each student…
Children living on the margins of society are especially vulnerable. Several speakers — the director of a school for the deaf, a gifted musician and a public-sector systems analyst — explained what they are doing to provide education and opportunity to marginalized children. EFATA School was started by an…
CEBE María Auxiliadora (Mary our Helper Center for Basic Special Education) is a public school located in a middle class neighborhood in Lima’s San Borja district. Disabled children are brought here from all over the metropolitan area to learn and develop basic life skills. Some of the students are…
Peru is a “middle-income” country: the average Peruvian earns the equivalent of $10,160 per year, taking into account the local exchange rate and cost of living. But incomes are distributed much less equally than in the U.S. and most other countries on earth. How did the large gap between…
Lima is a desert — the area receives less than an inch of rainfall each year. How does this city produce enough food for 8 million people? It doesn’t — food is trucked in from the Andes mountains and the Amazonian rainforest. Without access to distant markets, the population would…
We often take for granted the pipes that bring drinking water into our homes and take waste water away to the treatment center. But what would it be like to live in a house without running water or a sewage system? We didn’t need to drive very far from…
Peru has a proud past. The Inca civilization is most notable, but many other cultures thrived in this part of the world thousands of years before the rise of the Incas and their conquest by the Spanish. In many ways, these cultures were in the center of their known…
