PERU: Little Known Fact: Llama Dung Fueled Inca Empire And Culture.

GUARDIAN/ R. Carroll

   Without llama dung, the Incas would not have been able to thrive and create Anerica's biggest empire and build Machu Picchu.
    Llama manure provided the necessary fertilizer for corn to be cultivated at very high altitudes, according to new research from Alex Chepstow-Lusty of Lima's the French Institute of Andean Studies.

PERU: Floods, Mudslides, Road Blockages Grow In Ancash, Cuzco, Huanuco and Pasco.

LAHT/

    Thousands are suffering from recent heavy rains that have caused mudslides and blocked highways in the Ancash, Cuzco, Huanuco and Pasco regions.
    Governor Oscar Rodriguez Monterroso of La Convencion and the Cuzco region said: “There are businessmen and people who are making trips and domestic tourists who are visiting the archaeological sanctuary of Machu Picchu through this zone and who, upon becoming stranded, have had to walk for several hours."
    Popular tourist site Machu Picchu last year ( 2010 picture ) was closed for two months so that the train line leading to it could be repaired.

PERU: Garcia Says Yale Will Return ALL Machu Picchu Artifacts.

LAHT/
     On national TV, President Alan Garcia announced that Yale University has decided to return ALL all the artifacts removed from the Machu Picchu and held by it since 1912.
   Garcia said former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, the  director of Yale's Center for the Study of Globalization, told him of  the university's decision to hand over “all of the items, fragments and pieces that were taken from Machu Picchu by Mr. Hiram Bingham almost a century ago.”

PERU: Garcia Demands Yale Return Machu Picchu Treasures Or Be Called "Looters."

TELEGRAPH/       President Alan Garcia is demanding that Yale University return some 40,000 archeological artifacts its researchers "looted" from Machu Picchu in the early 1900s.
"Either we come to an understanding regarding ... Machu Picchu, or we'll simply have to describe them as looters of treasures," stated Garcia.
The treasures were dispatched after Yale alumnus Hiram Bingham rediscovered Machu Picchu in 1911. Garcia claims the objects were lent to Yale for 18 months but never sent back. "Now is the time to start packing up the things and send then over together with the research. ... Silence would indicate that they are guilty of robbery," said Garcia.

PERU: Machu Picchu Train Suspended By Water Protest.

GUARDIAN/       Train service, the easiest way to ascend to Machu Picchu's heights, will be cancelled for at least two days because of a 48-hour strike in Cusco in over an irrigation project that critics believe would leave communities south of Lima without water. Trains transport about 1,500 tourists to the ruins daily.
    A clash last week between police and protesters left one man dead and 44 injured over the Majes-Siguas II irrigation project that protesters say will leave the town of Espinar without water.

PERU: Machu Picchu Re-opens For Tourists.

BBC/   The reopening of Machu Picchu on April 1 is being celebrated by Peruvians because it should end revenue losses totalling some $185m USD after a two-month closure because of  torrential rains. "This disaster has been more disruptive to our industry than the financial crisis and swine flu combined", said tour executive Richard Leon.

PERU: Heavy Rains Kill 7; 1,000 Tourists Near Machu Picchu Still Stranded

CNN / UPDATED: PM 28-01/

A helicopter airlift is slowly underway after 7 people died, 10,000 families affected, 2,000 homes ruined and some 1,000 tourists still stranded near Cuzco's famous Machu Picchu after heavy rains. “The rain keeps coming down as it has done continuously for 18 hours. Floods from overflowing rivers are imminent, homes have collapsed and their inhabitants have to be relocated,” reported the Cuzco Mayor Luis Florez. Of the 2,000 tourists stranded near the citadel, government and private helicopters managed to fly only 475 to safety by Tuesday.