24th April & back in Cusco!
We had a lady in traditional dress in the hotel courtyard selling her wares, at breakfast, beautiful hand woven wall hangings, scarves & blankets. There's no way we can fit anything else into our bags,so I didn't make eye contact with her & scurried past.
We are getting very low on Peruvian Soles- ( money), so decided to make the most of the cultural tickets provided by Llama travel, so we could do some "cultural" activities for free, & headed to the museum of contemporary art- which had old photographs, & a mix of old & new ceramics, paintings and models. We enjoyed watching an Inca history video being shown, & despite it being in Spanish, we recognised a lot of the sites being shown & could understand bits of what was being described.
We still had a lot of museums and galleries left on the ticket, so decided to see as many as possible! With a hotel map in hand, we wandered the city, soaking up as many free visits as we could!
All were set around impressive courtyards, that were worth a visit on there own. All depicted the strange mix of devout Catholicism alongside Inca ( & even pre-Inca) heritage. Even the Natural history museum- although I enjoyed the Inca artifacts. The galleries all had pieces for sale, including paintings, ceramics and even grotesque masks! A person could go bankrupt very quickly here! It was all interesting though. Some of the art works were very impressive, others not so much!
The sun has been very hot today (although it didn't stop me buying a brightly coloured poncho- so much for being careful with the little bit of cash we have left) and the various museums were a welcome bit of shade, as well as knowledge.
I found myself getting a little short tempered with the hawkers trying to sell their wares, after the millionth one approached us. Although I had to laugh when a man tried to shoe shine Graeme's mesh front trainers for a few sols….
It just felt never ending, and as soon as one person finally got the message, we weren't going to buy, another approached. It was driving me mad. I just wanted to sit in peace and get my head together before our next activity, but they weren't allowing me any rest. When you have a condition like ME/ CFS, you need quiet time, without anything overloading your senses. Having people shake wooden carved seed pods in your face is very unhelpful.
We wandered into another part of town and into a market for locals, not tourists. It was here that I realised the hawkers aren't just deliberately hounding tourists, as it appears to be very much part of their culture to have this noisy, pressurised approach to selling. It was an assault on the senses. We didn't feel unsafe at any point though, not even when 2 police officers led a man past us in handcuffs. He seemed nonplussed by it, & nobody batted an eyelid. There was just about everything you could imagine for sale in the market and the streets around it. Including huge cooking pots, that Graeme was very interested in. Not only would they not fit in our luggage, I don't think they'd fit on our hob either!
After a much needed chill out in the hotel room, we headed back out & I spotted people drinking on an upstairs balcony. The music sounded good, so we decided to explore. It took us 10 minutes of asking in various shops below if their stairs led to the bar above, before we finally found it, hiding above the Cacoa museum! What a find it was- The Sacred Valley Brewing Company, brews all of its own beers in the sacred valley, but imports a lot of its hops. We got chatting to the staff & discovered it is Peruvian/ American owned & was set up originally to raise funds to support girls living out in the village provinces to get an education. The brewery sponsor girls, finding them a "host" house near schools, where they can live during term time. They also pay all costs involved, including books, and even travel costs so the girls can visit home. What a fantastic idea! Manager Franco, who is from La Pas, Bolivia, told us with pride that they have their first girl about to start university. I love it when you can get drunk, guilt free! Our purchases were directly helping to shape young lives. That'll do for me- so I ordered another round of drinks! Graeme was in 7th heaven with the choice of craft beers on sale, footie on TV and blokes to talk sport with- all be it in "Spanglish". I think he has missed getting out with his mates. I know I have.
The brewery have another tap room in Lima, so we can check that out when we are back there.
Cheers!
Caroline.
Spotted this in the news today-
https://perureports.com/archaeologists-discover-500-year-old-inca-ceremonial-bath-in-peru/10114/
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