Today was a day of laundry, shopping and enjoying the local cuisine. For me, the laundry was all the clothes I borrowed and the first day of wearing my own clothes.

Cusco

Cusco was was the historic capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th-century Spanish conquest. In 1983 Cusco was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It has become a major tourist destination, hosting nearly 2 million visitors a year. The Constitution of Peru designates it as the Historical Capital of Peru.^[2] In 1983 Cusco was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO with the title “City of Cuzco”.  Like many places we visited it is a mixture of the traditional and the modern.

The first tasty experience was in the local market. As soon as you walk in there are rows of ladies waving at you to come to their station to make you fresh juice. It had everything in it. Fruit I had never heard of, vegetables, bee pollen honey and the secret ingredient was dark beer.

After enjoying that treat everyone went their ways to explore the market. Rick and I set off to comb the market for food and snacks for our bus trip tomorrow. The market had everything. A isle of breads that were being sold by the local women, an isle of cheeses, rice, beans, fruits and potatoes. There was a isle of raw meat that we did not go down-it is not like Wegmans were everything is sliced, packaged AND refrigerated. Just a huge isle of slabs of unidentified meat and chickens. We bought fruit, nuts, empanadas and sweet bread.

We all met back from our daily adventures for dinner at a wonderful restaurant complete with music and entertainment.

We interrupt these wonderful pics of delicious food to tell you about Cuy.

This would be a good time to tell you about Cuy. What animal sounds like Kweeeeeeee? Give up? Ok, I will tell you, Guinne pig. Guinne pig is eaten all over the area. You can order in restaurants or on the streets. Guinne pigs are pests for the farmers that eat the bread crops so there is an abundance of them. You have heard of Man vs Food.  Well we had Tom vs Cuy  – the brave one amongst us to try it.

Ok, then — that’s it for this day……