Return to Cusco

I had some more time in Cusco to see things that I hadn't seen on my first visit. I went to the central market to see the sights ad colours and smells.

Some of the food stalls had 'cuy' i.e. guinea pig on the menu but it was too early for lunch but I will get around to trying it some time.

i had a walking tour of Cusco and from the main square, Plaza des Armas where the cathedral is and the slightly more ornate local church are, looking over the roof tops to the skies beyond the surrounding hills were menacing dark clouds.

A dig relaxing using a step outside the church as a pillow.

Down one of the many side streets leading off the main square was a local tourist market with some llamas and vicunas with whom you can pose for photos...for a consideration of course.

There was a also a street vendor who demonstrated various local and traditional instruments which you could also buy, plus tips for demonstrating his musical skills, fully dressed as an Inca chieftain. Behind him is one of the original Inca walls showing the fine stonemanship that they used to build their city. The Spanish started to demolish the Inca building but found that they were so well built and resistant to earthquake damage that they decided to keep them and built on top of the Inca buildings.

A detail of a wall of an Inca's palace. Again the showing the fine stonework. Outlines of llamas, snakes and other animals have been found in the shapes of the stones but some imagination is needed to pick them out. This twelve pointed for cornered tone is allegedly depicting the twelve months of the year but is also found on the glass bottles of the best selling local beer.

The walking tour also included a cookery demonstration on how to prepare ceviche...a local fresh fish dish eaten cold and raw.It is ever so simple as you only need to chop the ingredients as shown and present as shown in the bottom picture.

one of the last stops of the day was a visit to the Chocolate Museum, which of course tells the story of chocolate from the Mayans to the present day, how it is grown, harvested, processed and flavoured to produce the product that we all know and like. The museum is free to enter and they offer cooking courses as well. It is housed in a wonderful Spanish colonial style building just off a plaza next t the main Plaza des Armas.

We left Cusco for the journey to the next destination, back along the road that we had previously driven along to get to Cusco, following the same set of railway lines towards Arequipa. We stopped at Agua Clients again. This was the same spa resort at 4,400m in the mountains where we had camped more than a week before. This time we visited the local restaurant who have put some old oil drums to good use as ovens.

The food inside the ovens.

There was a choice of chicken, fish or ribs served with salad and potatoes...two types, the standard potato and a black skinned variety that we had seen on the markets but had yet to try. It tasted great despite being looked in an oil drum and costed about USD2 per plate.

We turned off the road to Arequipa and headed to Juliana which we had bypassed earlier due to its poor roads. I experienced for myself the poor roads, and seemingly uncontrolled expansion of the city into the local countryside. There was traffic chaos everywhere, plus building sites everywhere, including an unfinished flyover system that just caused more chaos. We drove through and reached our destination, Pona on the shores of Lake Titicaca.