Saturday in Pisac

---

Breakfast was at eight & was salad, boiled potatoes, bread & jam. Just off the garden there is a guinea pig hut, it is really an outside kitchen where Juliana cooks when it is cold to keep the guinea pigs warm. The guinea pigs are for eating & not for pets & are being fattened up for the next fiesta. There are two cats & a dog in the house which are pets & we spent a while playing with the smallest cat after breakfast. Gatito (little cat) had his breakfast soon after ours & wolfed down copious amounts of bread. Cats in Peru are rarely given meat as the thought is that if they are fed meat they won't catch rats.
We had arranged to meet the guys by the orange bridge for an explore of Pisac. Geoff who doesn't speak much spanish had already explored most of Pisac by the time we caught up with him as there was little to do in house that didn't involve spanish. Sam & Abigail were too entranced by all the alpaca handicrafts in the market to do much exploring so we stuck to the central plaza. We had drinks at Ulrikes, a popular hangout for volunteers on the plaza & then headed home for lunch. Juliana had been into Cusco in the morning to buy fresh flowers & her & Livia change the flowers in the church every Saturday. Usually the only time gringos can visit the church is during mass (which can sometimes be six times a day starting at five in the morning) but when services are being conducted lots of the church is off limits. We were lucky enough to be invited to the church in the afternoon with Livia.
It was a large church in the middle of the north side of the plaza. A small chapel on the west side contained the important Virgen Carmen de Pisac but it was June so the Jesus of the Sacred Heart was being displayed in front of the main altar (Carmen's month would be July & involve lots of processions). Old paintings & frescos with new geometric designs covered the walls of the church. The frescos had vivid colours & depicted peruvian flowers, dragons, sphinxes & lots of other designs not normally associated with the catholic church. Important things in quechuan lives were depicted such as corn, condors & incan stonework. We had the whole church to ourselves & only left when the sun stopped streaming through the stained glass windows & the temperature dramatically dropped.
Back home we played cards with Paty & had dinner.

---