Peru 2015/16 - Cusco - Lunes - San Pedro Market and the Inca Museum

I woke feeling much better after 12 hours sleep. Still no bag, so, after breakfast, I found the G-Adventures office and asked Robinson to see what he could do about the situation. Today I bought some basic toiletries, a sketch book and a T-Shirt to tide me over. If it hasn't come by tomorrow I will have to start shopping for the things I need for the trek and a suitcase to take everything home in. I really hope it doesn't come to that.
It was another day of walking and aside from the occasional bouts of breathlessness when going up stairs I felt fine. I passed a poster on a building that described an Inca canal discovered below the road.

This is how the street looks now.

Another street poster showed a map of Cusco with the Inca roads going out in the four directions. Cusco was known to the Incas as the "navel of the world".

I had wandered out of the tourist section.

Here many of the buildings were vacant and dilapidated. This street was a dead end so I turned around, headed down hill and found what I had hoped I would, eventually, in my wanderings: the market.

It is across from the Church of San Pedro

 It is huge. Most is under an old corrugated metal roof but it is also surrounded by stalls covered with tarps of many colours. It is full of sights and sounds and smells, people and animals, flowers and produce, a place I could spend all day. Every market I have ever been to has a list of similarities but each is also unique. Markets in Mexico (Oaxaca, Merida), France (Paris, Ceret), the USA (Cleveland, Palm Springs), Canada (Toronto, Port Dover) all have a unique flavor and I love them.

Although the bright woven fabric is all over the tourist shops it is actually in everyday use.

I was there at about 8:30am and some booths were still covered or just being displayed.

The bread aisle with Christmas decorations.

Corn, multitudes of uses.

Three ladies in blue in the cheese aisle.

One of the commonalities of markets, they all have a place to eat.

The tarped stalls around the market are a Walmart of products; shoes, fabric, clothing, toys etc. Unfortunately no sketch books. Although cynical about the qualifications of the individuals selling paintings in the main Plaza, both of the "art students" I asked were able to direct me to art supply stores and I found a small sketch pad and some pens in one. Hungry I stopped for an empenada and a custard tart for lunch.
The Museo Inka is in an old colonial mansion about a block from the main plaza. Taking pictures in the display rooms was not allowed.

The courtyard of the museum.

The museum has a couple of rooms with Pre Inca material documenting some pretty sophisticated civilizations from as far back as 1100ad in Peru. The Inca Displays were dioramas and pottery, weapons, tools, fabrics and jewelry from when the Inca were primarily around Cusco and when they conquered much of Peru and some of Brazil. There were models of Inca ruins and some descriptions of the archaeology. The last section documented the Inca resistance to the Spanish and the subsequent destruction of their religion and way of life.

Top of the Cathedral from the Museum balcony

I think this is called a back strap loom unfortunately no-one was demonstrating today.

I wandered some more, sat in a number of squares and sketched. When you sit down on a bench you are a sitting duck for those selling their wears but once enough "no gracias'" are said there are some nice conversations, they learned some English, I learned some Spanish.
I had an e-mail earlier in the day from Christine and was able to locate the Airbnb they are going to be staying in. They arrive tomorrow and we have a date to meet at 3pm.
The last photo is of supper. I had a huge bowl of pumpkin soup with grated cheese on top followed by the ensalada mixt. It was the 12 sols tourist menu, delicious and about $6 Canadian.

Then back to the hotel to struggle through blogging on the slow internet.