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we'd been placed in quite an awkward position and I felt they'd been
dishonest with both the Japanese and us.
The week finally ended with us submitting an evaluation of the pro-
posed design, whereupon the museum sta¤ expressed their gratitude
for our help and informed us that another traditional banquet would
be held for us that evening.
The next day we flew back to Beijing, stayed overnight, and then
flew on to Hong Kong. There we visited the highly successful Ocean
Park oceanarium, which Ken Norris had helped launch after he left
Sea World in San Diego. As for the Dalian aquarium, the government
later brought in a New Zealand firm to help with design and con-
struction, and the aquarium was completed in 1995.
Another small aquarium project that I consulted on, in Peru just south
of the capital of Lima, unfortunately wasn't completed, the victim of
a skyrocketing inflation rate. But working with the design team was
invigorating, and after my consultation was over Betty and I made a
fascinating side trip to Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas high
in the Andes.
Seeing Cuzco, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, from an Aeroperú Boe-
ing 727 as it banked around a snow-covered mountain was quite some-
thing. Cuzco was the capital of the Inca Empire until the Spanish ar-
rived in 1532 on their search for gold. Conquistador Francisco Pizarro
captured Emperor Atahualpa, held him for gold ransom, and then ex-
ecuted him. With their leader gone and 50 percent of the population
wiped out by smallpox brought by the Spaniards, the Inca civilization
collapsed.
We arrived at our small hotel and, wanting to see and do as much
as we could in the brief time we had, immediately arranged for a van
to drive us to the nearby ruins of the Inca fortress Sacsayhuaman (pro-
nounced “sexy woman”). Level ground is a rarity in the Andes, so our
sightseeing involved a lot of climbing around the ruins. Every step was
an e¤ort, and we made frequent stops to catch our breath. In our ea-
gerness to see it all, we failed to heed this warning.
Returning to town, I was hit with a splitting headache. I'd never ex-
perienced altitude sickness before, but clearly that's what I was su¤er-
ing from. My body, used to the pressures at sea level or below, was not
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