I downloaded it from Wordpress, and now there is a nice zip folder on my desktop. I have no idea how to apply it to my site. I am completely new to this. What do I do next?

Thanks for any help!

This is actually wordpress help, because it works the same on all themes:

1. Unpack the zip in its own folder (ex: desktop\Atahualpa\)

2. I assume you have a web hosting account where you already installed wordpress (if you didn't install wordpress, see this site: http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress )

- open your ftp client and connect to the web hosting
- Browse for wp themes folder: site-root/wp-content/themes/
- upload the theme folder from desktop into themes folder of your wordpress installation

3. Login into your Wordpress installation with the admin account and activate theme
- to do that, access yoursite.com/wp-admin/
- look in the left sidebar for Appearance/Themes
- In the theme list, you should see Atahualpa now: click on it, then in the right-up corner of the preview click the "activate theme" link.

That's it

Also, check WP Codex: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes for detailed info.

That was a huge help. THANK YOU!!!!

And for what you do NEXT...

I'd strongly suggest you got to Amazon.com and search under books for "Wordpress" - there's some great stuff out there. (A good book on CSS is handy as well... "CSS The Missing Manual" is a great one.)

I tried uploading the Atahualpa files several times but the theme does not appear on the WP admin page. I read the directions provided by Ciolo and I see that I could not browse for the themes directoy; I had to create it. I have tried to create it in 2 locations.