Peru -- Primarily Machu Picchu (Dec 2010)

Main city square. The "tree" is made from 2-liter soft drink bottles (detail shown on next photo).

Saw several statues like this of Inca kings. I suspect they are all supposed to be representations of the great king who unified (created? expanded?) the Inca empire, arouund the 1470s, I think it was. I believe his name was Pachacuti (a name that might be spelled various ways -- and he may have been known by other names at various times in his life).

Based on my education in the US (in the 1950s), I came away with the feeling that (to those of us in the US) the history of the US in (say) the year 1200 was basically the history of England,

My impression in Peru was that they view things differently. They don't think of their history in (again, say) the 1200 as the history of Spain, but rather the history of the pre-Columbian civilizations. The Spainish seem to be "remembered" as conquerors and occupiers. (I suspect the people in, say, Buenos Aires, think of their pre-Columbian history more like I do.)