Peru: a land of contrast

A travel account of Peru moves through three geographic regions — the rainless coastal desert, the high Andes, and the Amazon jungle — tracing stark physical contrasts alongside cultural continuities. Vivid landscape descriptions and photographs accompany discussions of coastal irrigated valleys and ruins, colonial Lima with its convents and urban peculiarities, archaeological sites and Inca ritual practice, highland life with llamas and markets, and jungle vegetation, animals, and expeditionary difficulties. Local myths and historical remnants are woven with observations about how environment shapes agriculture, belief, and daily existence.