July 2:
We rise very early to catch a 9:30am flight heading to Cusco. Our drive to the airport is fairly uneventful, although, once again, I have put too many people into too small of a space. We hired the father of the hotel owner to drive us in his sedan....FUN! Checking in is a snap and we are off to the security checkpoint, when we hit a little snafu....Sam's boarding pass won't work. We return to the check in desk and get it sorted out, pass through security, and get to the gate after purchasing one of the strongest coffees I have ever consumed. I have put each of us in a window seat so we can experience the wonderful view of the Andes mountains en route. We touch down and are greeted by our hotel driver. It is so nice to see the blue sky again as Lima was covered in overcast and fog. The hotel is in a wonderful, quiet neighborhood and we are quickly settled into place. It is much warmer than we thought it would be and are shedding out long sleeves before long. We decide to check out the town after lunch and head out in search of a reasonable restaurant. We have discovered that the "menu of the day" is often the best deal going and we try it again....appetizer, main course and beverage for s/10......which translates into roughly $3.25. We have a great meal and walk toward the main square. Hawkers are out in droves trying to get us to buy any assortment of things or take any assortment of tours, but we are resolute, and then we arrive at another handicraft market. We restrain ourselves and continue walking up toward the square. This is a beautifully quaint mountain village. The main square is surrounded by colonial style architecture with a large green in the middle and replete with cobblestone streets. Fountains and Cathedrals designate this as an important place. As the former center of the Inca Empire, Cusco is bathed in history dating back thousands of years. In the distance, you can see the beautiful mountains and the villages that dot the countryside. Women dressed in traditional garb with babies on their backs in slings made of beautifully woven cloth and carrying baby goats as a counter-weight are a common sight. We stop by the Textile Center and watch the Inca women weaving the intricate and colorful cloth.....it is mind boggling how much detail they create through the patterns. Many of them travel to the center 1-2 hours per day and then work for 12 hours weaving then travel home again. It will take them approximately 15 days to create a modest size cloth and they will receive about $50 for their work. The museum shows how the alpaca wool is harvested and and spun into thread. Then the herbs and natural products are ground into powders to create the natural dyes. Then the women start weaving.....and we tourists start bargaining for a great deal on what become of their labor. Don't get me wrong, I like a bargain as much as anyone, but it is heart-breaking to see how hard they work for so little. We return to the hotel for a nap and by now it is FREEZING both inside the unheated hotel and the outside. We venture off for dinner and are unable to eat the enormous portions. Instead of leaving it to be thrown away, we pack it up and decide as a family that we will find a needy person to give it to. It is nearly 9:00 and Annie, Hudson and I are off in search of our recipient when we come across a small boy of 3 or 4 sitting alone on the sidewalk with a plastic bag at his feet. He is begging for money and giving small pieces of candy in return. We offer him our leftovers and his smile lights up the dark sidewalk. I give him some change and as we walk away, we see him peeking inside the box and nibbling on the french fries.......we are all so happy that we have made a small difference in one person's life. We go to bed happy.
We rise very early to catch a 9:30am flight heading to Cusco. Our drive to the airport is fairly uneventful, although, once again, I have put too many people into too small of a space. We hired the father of the hotel owner to drive us in his sedan....FUN! Checking in is a snap and we are off to the security checkpoint, when we hit a little snafu....Sam's boarding pass won't work. We return to the check in desk and get it sorted out, pass through security, and get to the gate after purchasing one of the strongest coffees I have ever consumed. I have put each of us in a window seat so we can experience the wonderful view of the Andes mountains en route. We touch down and are greeted by our hotel driver. It is so nice to see the blue sky again as Lima was covered in overcast and fog. The hotel is in a wonderful, quiet neighborhood and we are quickly settled into place. It is much warmer than we thought it would be and are shedding out long sleeves before long. We decide to check out the town after lunch and head out in search of a reasonable restaurant. We have discovered that the "menu of the day" is often the best deal going and we try it again....appetizer, main course and beverage for s/10......which translates into roughly $3.25. We have a great meal and walk toward the main square. Hawkers are out in droves trying to get us to buy any assortment of things or take any assortment of tours, but we are resolute, and then we arrive at another handicraft market. We restrain ourselves and continue walking up toward the square. This is a beautifully quaint mountain village. The main square is surrounded by colonial style architecture with a large green in the middle and replete with cobblestone streets. Fountains and Cathedrals designate this as an important place. As the former center of the Inca Empire, Cusco is bathed in history dating back thousands of years. In the distance, you can see the beautiful mountains and the villages that dot the countryside. Women dressed in traditional garb with babies on their backs in slings made of beautifully woven cloth and carrying baby goats as a counter-weight are a common sight. We stop by the Textile Center and watch the Inca women weaving the intricate and colorful cloth.....it is mind boggling how much detail they create through the patterns. Many of them travel to the center 1-2 hours per day and then work for 12 hours weaving then travel home again. It will take them approximately 15 days to create a modest size cloth and they will receive about $50 for their work. The museum shows how the alpaca wool is harvested and and spun into thread. Then the herbs and natural products are ground into powders to create the natural dyes. Then the women start weaving.....and we tourists start bargaining for a great deal on what become of their labor. Don't get me wrong, I like a bargain as much as anyone, but it is heart-breaking to see how hard they work for so little. We return to the hotel for a nap and by now it is FREEZING both inside the unheated hotel and the outside. We venture off for dinner and are unable to eat the enormous portions. Instead of leaving it to be thrown away, we pack it up and decide as a family that we will find a needy person to give it to. It is nearly 9:00 and Annie, Hudson and I are off in search of our recipient when we come across a small boy of 3 or 4 sitting alone on the sidewalk with a plastic bag at his feet. He is begging for money and giving small pieces of candy in return. We offer him our leftovers and his smile lights up the dark sidewalk. I give him some change and as we walk away, we see him peeking inside the box and nibbling on the french fries.......we are all so happy that we have made a small difference in one person's life. We go to bed happy.
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