Mirada! mamá, un turista!!

Yes, a child shouted out to her mother. "Look! a tourist!" I love it.

Today is my second day apart from Kevin, as a productive explorer of Cusco.

I walked to Plaza de Armas which is the main square in this area. I was in search of a market called "Gato" something. I finally found it to pick up some apples and water because tomorrow morning I leave for Aguas Calientes, which is the closest town to Machu Picchu. Everything in Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu is over priced (of course) SO I had to stock up on some snacks and water.
I enjoyed a peach drink in the Plaza overlooking the breathtaking Baroque Cathedral in front of me and to my left at a single glance I enjoyed another massive church ("La Compañia").

After my morning snack and the soon unbearable, brisk, wind chill and THEN drizzle I trekked up the steps to our hostel. The walk up the steps and hill to the hostel is a constant topic in this hostel. Someone, said something to me as I reached the top of the steps and I didn´t understand him and robotically replied "yeah." Him and his buddies were cracking up and commented on how they were barely ready to walk down the steps, but they were definately not looking forward to coming back up in a couple hours. Even when I enter the hostel, people sit in the front area to catch their breath from the steps and high altitutde that doesn´t allow you to catch it.

After reading and chatting with my roommates I was ready for another mini trek around Cusco. I headed over to the main Market just block away from this hostel and next to San Pedro, another sightful church and previous convent (like MANY in the area).
Just on the way to the market I saw...

1. Children performing skits and comedy shows in front of Plaza San Francisco.

2. Locals performing magic tricks for other locals.

3. A man with a MONKEY on his back with local teenagers poking at it and screaming when the monkey reacted with a gentle paw back at them. This same man also had a parrot!

4. A woman selling food that looked like corn on the cob. The woman stored her food on a metal wheel barrel and also had a baby infant on the wheelbarrel next to the food all bundled up.

5. A father with his child inside the market showing a friend his daughter had learned to walk a few steps. As I was looking at scarves I couldnt help but light up with joy and smile when looking at the baby. The father told the baby to wave at me and blow a kiss and I was floating for the rest of the day. I asked how old the adorable child was and only a 1 year 4 month old baby blowing me kisses. ahhh. cuteness.

6. I haggled with a 10-13 year old girl for the price of a scarf as she went back and forth asking her mother how much it was worth. I felt a little ridiculous haggling over the total difference of a dollar or so. I eventually gave her 2 soles more than she quoted me and called it a (wonderful) day.

That's all I can remember off hand for now, but Kevin has the camera so I will document with words in my journal and here.

Kevin is trekking on the original (publically available) Inca trail. I pray he is not sick with whatever he had before he left!

I will leave tomorrow morning at 6am and get to Aguas Calientes 4 hours later. Trek a short ways to a waterfall and wait for Tuesday when I will take a bus to Machu Picchu and again be reunited with Kevin. Haha.

MACHU PICCHU!!!!