Peruvian taxi drivers are a strange breed. Part Evel Knievel, part Confucius, these guys (I did not once see a woman driving one) seem to dispense white-knuckle moments and deep thoughts with equal regularity. On my first full day in Lima we landed in the back of a cab with a driver who spoke pretty good English. We told him we were headed to Cuzco in a few days and he instantly lit up at the mention of his previous home. “Ahh, Cuzco,” he said with a big smile and the jerky cadence of non-native speakers. “Every day is dancing day.”

Though not technically in Cuzco, we visited nearby Pisac to hike to some ruins and see the Fiesta Virgin de Carmen, where dancing was indeed the order of the day.