I went for a walk around Cusco today, a bit of exploring. I saw a lot of things that surprised me and a couple that didn’t. The first surprising encounter that I had was a baby lamb hanging out at a bus stop with a little girl. Mary had a little lamb perhaps? She brought that lamb to school….but oh wait, its Saturday….
I continued my walk to the Plaza de Armas—the center of town. I had heard that Cusco was a very touristy destination, but thus far I have encountered about 1 person who is not from here…and that is my roommate Emily. I guess my apartment is not in a tourist part of town, which I very much enjoy, and will be good for my Spanish speaking skills, but in the meantime is quite intimidating. Anyways, I got to the Plaza de Armas and was not surprised to see a couple handfuls of natives walking around selling trinkets. The best trinket seller was a boy of about 10 or 11. He didn’t even try to sell me anything, seemed more like he just wanted to date me. He did, however, have one of the best pickup lines I have heard in quite a while: “hello, my name is Michael Jackson.” He then proceeded to sit down next to me and talk to me about random things until eventually he asked if I wanted to buy a postcard. When I replied no, he quickly decided I either am not hot enough to date or he had other tourists to sell things too.
I continued to sit in my spot on the stairs leading to a fountain that was more like a statue since the water wasn’t running. As I people watched, I was shocked to see that the majority of the people that I saw were not tourists. Although I had already discovered this in my part of town, I thought that perhaps in the center would be different. Although there were more than by my apartment, most of the people that I observed seemed to be natives. Along this line, I was pleasantly surprised when an adorable family of Peruvians sat down right next to me. And when I say right, I mean RIGHT next to me. Fortunately, my new neighbor on this step was an adorable little Peruvian boy of about three years, and next to him his brother or uncle who was about 16 or 17. Now, I’m not quite sure if the little boy was trying to set me up with his bruncle, or if he wanted me himself, but he decided to play a game with his bruncle that I named “squish me into the cute American girl on my right”. The bruncle would move slightly closer to the little boy, and he would say “mas”, the bruncle would again move closer, “mas”, closer, “mas”. At this point, it took all of my restraint to not reach over and tickle the little boy. I sat with them for another 20 minutes or so until I decided perhaps it was time to go home.
I began the walk home, which thankfully, was now downhill. I must be really out of shape, or I could blame the altitude, because the walk to the Plaza had been VERY exhausting. The downhill walk was much easier, and made more interesting by a parade! A Jesus parade at that. Unfortunately no one was dressed up as Jesus they just chanted some little chant about him and there were lots of signs about how he lives on. There was, however, someone dressed up as a lion! I’m not sure what that has to do with Jesus, but it was amusing for me! I continued my walk home, made it home safe and sound with a brief stop in a little market store where I successfully bought butter and pasta. Well that’s all for tonight. Maybe more adventures tomorrow?
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