The Llama, the Incas, Perú and the Andes
by Charles Young and Karl Klooster

The Andes

The setting for this mighty saga of wealth and conquest is as magnificent as any place on earth. The soaring Andes, a majestic, mountain range boasts 27 of the world's 100 highest peaks, more mountains higher than 10,000 feet, and more volcanoes, than any other range in the world.

The Andes emerge from beneath the sea in the frigid waters of the Antarctic Ocean at Tierra de Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, which is part of Argentina. From there they quickly soar upward, stretching the entire length of the continent to Venezuela, a distance of 4,500 miles - the longest contiguous range in the world.

To top it off, the entire region is earthquake prone. As testimony to the building skills of the Incas, in 1950 a devastating earthquake leveled half the city of Cuzco. Yet, the stones of the mighty walls of Sacsahuamán did not topple nor was any other Inca ruin in the area disturbed.

And what of the surroundings? On the west, the Andes are flanked by the bleakest, driest deserts in the world. In some place no rainfall has ever been recorded. In total opposition, clinging to the Andes' eastern slopes are the dense, steamy jungles of the Amazon.

The soaring, snowcapped Andes are a place of unsurpassed natural beauty with a unique past. Home to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, and Urubamba Valley, which American explorer Hiram Bingham, the discoverer of Machu Picchu, called "the most beautiful valley in the world."