Wandering around Cusco and Chinchero

On Saturday I walked to the Feria de Huancara (Huancara Fair) not knowing exactly what it was but my teacher said it was interesting and non-touristy.  Turns out it is the local State Fair.  The two most popular meats in Peru are beef and lamb, so I was not surprised to see cows and lambs in the animal exhibit.  It was the first time, however, that I have ever watched llama and alpaca judging.

The next most popular meat in Peru is guinea pig.  They look really cute in the exhibit area - like rabbits without ears.  They look a little less cute on the plate.

Unlike the California State Fair, the food is not all fried.  It is far more likely to be grilled.

Also, as you can see in the llama judging pictures, Coca Cola is a sponsor of the Feria.  But Peru is one of the few countries in the world where Coke is not the leading soft drink seller.  The top seller in Peru is Inka Cola, which for some reason is bright yellow.  The color has turned me off from trying it.  It is a little hard to tell in this picture but the bottles of yellow liquid in the third cabinet are Inka Cola.

Other sights in Cusco on the walk home from the Feria ... old guys playing four on four futbol on concrete - referee and all.  The next team is warming up.

There are openings in the Peru-German preschool.

Most of the sellers in the markets are women and many have babies with them. This little girl is sitting safely in a cardboard box.

On Friday, another student and I had returned to Sacsaywaman, the Inca ruins on top of the hill where the Inti Raymi Festival had been held.  This time we were able to take a tour without the crowds.  The Inca ruins continue to amaze, but one thing left me shaking my head.  According to our guide, the Cristo Blanco was a gift to the city of Cusco from Christian Palestinian refuges after the war in 1945.  I corrected him; there weren't refuges until 1948.  I confused him but he said the refuges came in 1945.  I went home and did what I do every time I don't understand something I saw:  I googled it.  Damned if Google doesn't agree with the guide.  Go figure.



On Sunday I returned to Chinchero, the first place I visited in the Sacred Valley, although Chinchero is not really in the Sacred Valley but on the way.  At an elevation of 12,000 feet, it is the highest point I have visited.  Chinchero is known for its native weavers.  On Sunday it has an artisanal and local market.  I took the collectivo to Chinchero like the locals do.  The vans won't leave until every seat is taken, but the price is only a dollar or two.

 After wandering through the market, I walked up the hill (stopping every fifty feet to breathe) to the Inca ruins on the top.  It was a beautiful day and I decided to sit in the grassy area and read.  But I saw one of the strangest sights I have ever seen.  Spread all over the grass were small ... potatoes.  Some were gathered into piles and the woman with the teal shirt is stomping them with her feet.  I asked her what she was doing and - maybe there is something wrong with my Spanish - but I thought she said she was mashing the potatoes to make ice cream tonight.  I cannot think of anything less appetizing than potato ice cream.  I must have heard wrong.  Although I was sitting more than fifty feet from her, I could smell the mashed potatoes.

It is really hard to see landscapes in pictures, but this was my view over the fields on the right to the snow capped mountains in the distance.

I watched another demonstration of dying and weaving in a woman's collective.  The woman on the right has a baby on her back and that is a little girl in the middle helping.

From my viewpoint at the Inca ruins, I could see the entire town and saw that there was a football game going on in the stadium.  So I walked over to watch the Sunday afternoon entertainment.  On a small field outside the main stadium the old guys were playing - eight on eight this time.  They were really bad and the crowd kept laughing every time one of them fell down.

Then I watched the main event in the stadium along with most of the town.  That is barbed wire on the fence between the stands and the field.  I didn't think the boys (or young men) played very well and thought my Encina boys could beat them.  Then I realized that at 12,000 feet, none of my boys would be running or breathing after five minutes.

Walking back around the old guys' field, I saw something else I had never seen before.  Is it a foul if one of the pigs takes out a player?

Back to Cuzco in the collectivo where I had sushi for dinner.  You can pretty much find anything in Cusco.