Hangin´ in Cusco

We spent the next couple of days enjoying Cusco, which, although very geared towards tourists, it still has a very nice feel to it.

We visited a convent with a very surly gatekeeper! The Convento de la Merced was built in 1650 and it had some fabulous old paintings that, for once, we were allowed to photograph! There was also a very cool dungeon type place which still had intact the original frescos (no pics allowed there I´m afraid) - One room had plenty of angels and the other was full of skulls, depictions of damnation, fire and brimstone - Cool!



Inka structure in front - convent behind...
yes, that is the real Inca building- not fake



We also visited Qoriqancha which was originally an Incan site - known as Inti Kancha or Temple of the Sun, but was then built upon by the church (made into another convent - Convento de Santo Domingo in 1534) in an effort, I think, to show that they were more powerful...couldn´t beat the stone masonry however! It was an interesting place with one foot in on century and culture and one foot somewhere completely different. Actually, it had a third foot because they had converted the upper floor into a modern art gallery. It was a really odd combination that somehow worked.



Pepino



During our Cusco wanderings we at one point found ourselves in the market where we saw this weird round thing - it was light yellow in colour with some purple striations on top - neither of us had ever seen anything like it. I picked one up and sniffed it, no smell. The lady who kept the stall came over and Encarna asked her what it was - Pepino, she answered. Hmmmm a pepino is a cucumber...this did not look like a cucumber at all. The lady explained that this was a sweet cucumber. Oh. I put the cucumber down and never in my life have I ever gotten a dirtier look than the one I got from this lady. Apparently, you mustn´t touch the produce in markets. Only the proprietor can do that. Oh. Oooops.

We ran into this cucumber again on our second visit to Pisaq (sometimes its nice to get out of town), this time I bought one and asked the woman to peel it for us. It was a light yellow in colour on the inside as well...and it had no pits - I wonder how it propogates. It tastes like a cross between a cucumber and a melon - not too sweet, very refreshing! Two thumbs up from me!

Speaking of  fruits...one of the other things I enjoyed in Cusco were the cactus pears. There were ladies who sold them from their wheelbarrows in the city. They peel them for you and put them in a bag - how they did this with their bare hands I don`t know...those things hurt! They are a nice snack while you´re walking around. There are many such people on the streets selling their wares - everything from cactcus pears, to fragments of rock crystals, to hangers (?! yeah that was a weird one). These people are eeking out their living doing this.

Cusco wins a championship against arch rival Lima.
Party in the streets!