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Fountain in Plaza de Armas |
Well, it’s my last full day out in the Inca City of
Cusco. What to do, what to do?
It’s nice to have a wee bit of down time from being on the go go go. I started
my morning having breaky with the Japanese backpackers who I meant yesterday
morning. Oh Cusco is the center of
the Inca world in the Peruvian Andes.
The city has the shape of a jaguar & was developed under the Inca
ruler Pachacutec into a complex urban center with distinct religious &
administrative functions that was surrounded by clearly delineated areas for
agricultural, artisan & industrial production. By the 16
th
century Spanish Conquerors came & took over the area, they did leave the
basic structures of the Inca Empire, but built Baroque churches & palaces
over the ruins. It’s quite the charming
city with nooks & crannies to explore, that I’ve been so busy exploring the
rest of the Inca world that I really haven’t seen too much of this charming
city. I have to admit that it’s a
wee bit on the touristy sides with people selling you everything under the sun
on the streets from massages, tours to Andes goods. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Cusco UNESCO
, the flag is a rainbow cos the rainbow was a symbol of the Incas & the
people are friendly here.
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Bug's Line the Streets |
It’s been rather a relaxing day. I have just roamed around the streets seeing what it will
bring. I found myself in an art
museum & also in the famous coca museum. If I had Kiwi with me she would be
in heaven. According to her
chocolate is another food group. I
will have to admit. Sad to say that there was no "free samples" just a history lesson. It was a small
but quite nice to be honest. I
found out that the Mayan’s first used cocoa & then it was brought to South
America. Columbia & Peru are
the world’s largest producer of coca, but it’s sad to say that these countries
are the largest exporters of the “white lines” trade. Christopher Columbus brought coca to Spain from Honduras
& only was it use as a spicy drink for the nobility before it caught on to
the rest of Europe. It wasn’t until the late 1800’s early 1900’s that chocolate
became mainstream to the masses with Cadbury & other confectionery
companies making a name for themselves. Chocolate is good for you, but it’s the
sugar that makes it bad that adds the extra calories. Switzerland leads the
world with the export of the Peruvian Coca market in 2007 & many other
European countries are not far behind. European chocolate is superb & also
the organic trade is becoming a new trend. This museum was quite small, but very lovely. I learned a lot during my time
there. Also the coca plant grows
in the jungle & the Europeans brought the seeds from South America to their
colonies in Africa. I was surprise
to learn that China did not catch on with the chocolate trade, more foreigners
in China consumer more chocolate than the Chinese do. Also, the coca plant is
good for many other goods besides, chocolate, coca butter is found in beauty
products & it is also an excellent source of fertilizer & natural
energy. There are so many beautiful things that come from plants that one must
look back at the source of these things to find the true healing properties. It
was a lovely find.
I stumbled back into a store that had a familiar aurora to
it for me. It wasn’t until I got
speaking with the lady when I was buying a post card to send to a friend who
told me the owner was Japanese.
The store definitely had a Japanesey feel to it & reminded me of
something that I would pop in Matsue.
I got speaking with some Japanese tourist today. I said “Amerika karamashita” to them
& asked if they were “genki”. I quite enjoyed my time looking around.
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Andes Women's |
Today I finally had a chance to make it to the Om Cusco
Om Cucsco Volunteering
project for a FREE vegetarian lunch of dhal & a noodle dish, but of course
leaving a donation for the children’s charity. I got chatting with the nice
Indian owner again. So I had a proper “dirrty curry” as a friend of mine would
say. I also found myself having a
huge fantastic mixture of papaya, pineapple & bananas smoothie for three
soles while I was waiting for lunch to be ready in a couple shops up from the
restaurant. I kind ended my day with a relaxing one hour massage for ten
dollars. Overall Cusco has been charming for sure. You never know what your going to expect until you walk out
that door & take advantage of what is before you & embrace it to make
the best of the situation.