''Give your children experiences, not things.'' Someone told us those words of wisdom years ago, and as a family, we have tried to do this. Two years ago, when our oldest son graduated from the University of Tennessee, we booked a house in Tortola, BVI for his graduation trip. FIVE DAYS OF MONSOON RAINS. One afternoon, sitting under the porch …

As our older son, Will, is currently in school in Boston, we were scheduled to leave from 2 different destinations, meeting in Dallas, and flying the 8 hour trip to Lima together. We had a small delay in the flight out of Dallas, and as a result, arrived in Lima somewhat after midnight.

Our younger son, Brent, has taught himself Espanol, as …

Morning came, and with it breakfast. This was included in the room, as were all breakfasts. However, after breakfast, 2 of us went back to bed!!!!

The other 2 went out exploring. Just a couple of blocks from the hotel, was the Mira Flores mall, a very western style setup with many American chain businesses, including Chili's and KFC.

There was …

We had a taxi arranged by A-L waiting for us the next morning, taking us to the airport for Cusco. About 30 minutes back to the airport.

Line wasn't too bad at the airport. We were flying LAN airlines. Security not quite as tight as US but adequate. Plane ride to Cusco beautiful as we were flying over the Andes. Out the right side of the …

Around 7:30, Teddy and our driver Eduardo, arrived at our hotel door carrying our traveling companions, Mario and Betty, ready to take us towards the Sacred Valley. There was not really any one else to meet, as Mario and Betty were the entire rest of our group. That was one of the main reasons we picked a company like Adventure-Life!

Mario and …

We had all dedided that every town we visited was better than the first and we had not yet arrived at Machu Picchu! What this day would bring, we just couldn't imagine.

We joined our group and hopped in the motorcycle taxi down to the train station, which is the preferred (and possibly only ) way to navigate the final miles into the town of …

This day was a free day until 2:00 and we all decided we wanted to go back up the hill to M-P.

Will and Brent had passes to go up to Huayna Picchu and please note that the queue to get on the trail can take up to an hour to get through. Another check of the passport.

Nancy and I thoroughly enjoyed some free time on the mountain and looked for …

This day was a free day in Cusco, and we opted for a short horse back ride. Teddy had arranged this for us, an a van and a young guide named came and picked us up at the hotel.

Just a short ride (15 minutes) up the hill and we arrived at the OK corral. We have a lot of these type things in the Smokies, so I guess we knew what to expect. The …

This day was all about getting home. We started at the hotel, saying goodbye to our good friend Teddy at noon. Riding down the hill to the aeropuerto, we were really surprised to see our first real obstacle of the trip. That was the check-in line at LAN airline terminal.

Stood in that line over 2 hours and missed our flight back to Lima. …