I was extraordinarily fortunate to meet the esteemed Dr. Tom Cummins nearly twenty years ago in Cusco, Peru - one of the great world centers, or axis mundi. Tom was one of our brilliant lecturers during the five-week NEH summer study, ‘Andean Worlds’ which was led and managed by the wise, generous support of George Scheper, Laraine Fletcher and David Berry. Traveling around Peru, as well as Bolivia, was a feast in history and culture, land and people – an immersion of beauty and mystery. Despite the challenges of high-mountains and arid deserts, the Inca and other cultures created incredible temples and fortresses, roads, pilgrimages and oracles, agriculture and foods, etc. What’s left of Inca civilization (Tawantinsuyu) - the culmination
