INCAS MORE THAN DINKAS DID

We just returned from a great South American cruise. The highlight: Machu Picchu in Peru. Thirty-five from our ship enjoyed the fabulous site of the Inca civilization from 1450-1550. A few days after our return to Lima, Peru, where we caught up with our ship, I wrote the following. If you ever get a chance to go there, please take advantage and don't pass it up.

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Those old enough to remember Jimmy Durante probably recall his theme song, "Inka Dinka Do". Well, the Incas more than created something dinky.

Machu Picchu is not only Peru's magnificence, it's the world's. It took us planes and a ship and a train and buses to get to the marvelous site to enjoy for 3 1/2 hours or so.

It wasn't enough time. Just to look and fill our eyes. It was like we couldn't look hard enough. Long enough. Even though we knew we could never forget.

No picture could capture it. You just had to experience Machu Picchu in its unabashed splendor.

The symmetry, the contrast of the mountains rising, peaks sometimes obscured by white cotton clouds in bunches. The valley, flat and fertile, holding white granite in perfect order. Terraces sandwiched on top of terraces suited for llamas' ascension for grazing, for pulling or snatching tasty green grass. Their only interruptions: tourists with cameras. But they won't last. They never do. Yet they never want to leave when the time is up.

And while there was only one Creation by God, we can't use that word to describe Machu Picchu. But when anyone asks if you've seen the ruins there, tell them you've seen the marvels of Machu Picchu. Don't let anyone call them ruins.