We fly into Lima, Peru, arriving in the evening. Cynthia will meet you at the Lima airport; or if you wish at the Miami airport, depending on your time of travel. Lima, Peru's beautiful capital city, has world-class museums, flowery parks, interesting architecture, a fabulous crafts market and great restaurants where we will sample typical Peruvian cuisine. In Lima, we stay in a pretty bed & breakfast overflowing with geraniums, and we will learn about the amazing pre-Columbian textiles, gold and ceramics at several of Lima's excellent museums.

After Lima, we fly to Trujillo, and first visit the fascinating UNESCO World Heritage site of Chan Chan. The largest Pre-Columbian city in South America, Chan Chan is a huge archaeological site located several miles east of Trujillo. Chan Chan was constructed by the Chimor people, and seat/capital of the kingdom of the Chimú, a civilization after the Moche. The vast mud city of Chan Chan was built between 850 and 1470 AD and was the imperial capital. It is estimated that 30,000 people lived in the city of Chan Chan.

The walls themselves were constructed of adobe brick, covered with a smooth mud coating, into which intricate designs were carved. There are two styles of design present in these carvings: a ‘realistic’ representation of subjects such as birds, fish, and small mammals; and the other is a more graphic, stylized representation of the same subjects. Chan Chan, unlike most other coastal ruins in Peru, is located very close to the Pacific Ocean.

Then we head north where we'll meet Peruvian textile specialists, and visit several more fascinating archaeological sites--among them, famous Moche pyramids of the Lord of Sipan. The archaeological site of Sipán is a large Moche culture

administrative and religious center, occupied between about AD 200 and 800. Consisting of three adobe pyramids, it was discovered in the 1980s when it was being looted. The site has since been excavated under the direction of Walter Alva, director of the Museo Tumbas Royales de Sipán.The Moche were farmers, growing a wide variety of crops, including corn, beans, guava, avocado, squash, chili pepper and peanuts; they domesticated llamas, guinea pigs, and ducks. They used the marine resources of the Pacific and coastal estuaries as well, harvesting shrimp, fish, crabs, crayfish and mollusks. They sailed in reed boats, and participated in active trade with their neighbors, obtaining lapis lazuli from Chile and spondylus shells from Ecuador.

Then we fly to Cuzco and we begin our Andean textile adventure! We'll fly over the snow-capped Andes to the charming city of Cuzco, where we stay in a beautiful colonial-style landmark hotel. Cuzco offers stunning architecture, astounding Inca stonework, churches and museums and wonderful shopping-exquisite traditional textiles, unique jewelry, papier maché masks, handmade sweaters and alpaca knitting yarn.

On Monday we will witness the exciting and colorful "Easter Monday" procession of the statue of Christ representing "El Señor de los Temblores," or Our Lord of the Earthquakes; see photo. We will have fabulous seats to view the procession from a restaurant above the plaza where we will eat lunch. This bird's eye view is perfect for taking photos and for throwing the traditional red flowers onto the image below as the parade passes.