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Published: October 12th 2008
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cuy!
note the crown made from a tomato We´ve spent the past 3 days in Cusco again. Sunny and warm. We´ve spent our time shopping, touring all the museums and eating. Doug tried Cuy, guinea pig. It was so funny, it came on a plate wearing a tomato crown. We saw the Koricancha and the Cathedral which are both Spanish colonial churches built on top of the Inka foundations, toured in a group tour the 4 sites just outside of town. We both agreed never again would we do a bus tour, it was just a few hours and we had a guide explaining everything but it was the other people in the group that were so annoying. We were always waiting for someone or someone was complaining etc. We´ve never done a group tour before and won´t do it again. The markets are fun, we found the real market outside the tourist area where they are selling all the produce that the ladies bring in on their backs from the neighbouring communities. Doug always enjoys the meat area, tables of pig heads, hoofs, cow snouts still bristly etc ...there was even a lady selling frogs, live in a tub of water, she would kill it and skin it
for you in a flash. The fruit was amazing, real strawberries, not those huge tasteless steriod ones we get from California, the avacados were enormous, row on row of gorgeous fruit and then row on row of stalls turning it into juice for you. There was a parade assembling just outside the market, children dressed in costumes, we went to take photos. This whole area outside of the tourist main square was alive with people. There is everything for sale up and down the streets, a man selling nailclippers ( we bought one), a lady selling antennas, a man selling aprons (again we bought). There was nothing frivolous for sale in this area, no home decor stores here, imagine!! In the main square and for a few blocks around is very touristy, everyone approaching to ask for money, shine your shoes, buy this or that. We saw enough churches and art galleries and museums to last us a while. Doug handed out most of his bouncy balls, all the little kids spend 12 hours a day on the streets with their parents selling things to tourists, they light up with smiles when you give them something because they spend the
bought a weaving
muy cara once the exchange was done!! day bored and have nothing to play with. Some kids are playing with empty pop bottles all day. The only thing Doug didn´t realise is that much of Cusco is on a hill, so you give a kid a bouncy ball on a cobblestone street, very steep hill and away goes the ball. I shuddered when one of the girls went running down the hill after her ball and I thought she was going to run right into traffic but someone caught it for her at the bottom of the hill. Another little girl was blowing him kisses and brought him some mint after he gave her a ball. She showed him how to crush it in your hand to bring out the smell. Overall Cusco is extremely touristy but worth visiting, lots to see here. The people were never rude or pushy they just need to make a living and are doing whatever they can.
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