Our hotel being in the historic centre of Cusco, we were able to just walk and explore. What we found was one impossibly narrow laneway (although they are called streets and avenues here) after another with brilliant views at the end. As we, again, were out early we had a lot of the streets to ourselves.
Shops don't seem to open until 11am and we were able to witness what must be the Peruvian equivalent to Little Athletics. Lots of children were doing traditional dance drills and we watched from one of the blue balconies, a cafe in the Plaza de Armas.
Even though there's a shop, stall or seller offering 'authentic' textiles of the Andes every 3 steps, it took a bit of snooping to find the genuine article. One was a shop/gallery partnered by an American lady, who also happens to be a Professor of Textiles. She was able give the providence of each piece and when each of her articles were made. Very informative and I look forward to the website she is in the process of having built. Look out for 'Arte Anthropologia'.
The other place was the Inka Museum. Within its courtyard are artisans actually demonstrating, unlike a lot of people dressed up in traditional Peruvian clothes so that they can charge you for taking their photo, these crafts people are more than happy for you to photograph them and quality textiles can be bought at prices that more realistically reflect the amount of work that goes into these textiles.
Cusco being the base of tourists to visit Machu Picchu, it is a place rich in culture, beauty and history, juxtaposed against the crass commercialism tourism brings.
Spot the juxtaposition.
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