The openings in front of each grave are taken care of by family members.
They contain trinkets, photos, flowers, etc...
We met two 11-year-old boys who spend part of every day there. People pay them to climb ladders up to the highest graves to change the flowers and polish the doors.
Then our intrepid bus driver made his way through the central market. Because it was Good Friday, there were extra vendors lining the streets and extra local people shopping for the holiday. The tradition is to prepare 12 different dishes on Good Friday to symbolize the 12 disciples.
We continued to another Incan Site - Saqsaywaman. More amazing history and gorgeous views:
After some time exploring the ruins, we moved to a nearby site and met with a man who is an Andean healer. With the help of his son, he performed a healing ceremony for us all.
We were each given 3 coca leaves - we concentrated on our hopes and wishes, then he placed our leaves among the symbolic elements he had placed on the white paper.
After wrapping up the paper, he blessed each of us, then the paper was burned.
We all walked quietly across the field to our next stop - an alpaca sweater factory! Apparently some goods sold as famous Peruvian alpaca are fake. We were shown how to tell the difference and encouraged to make some purchases.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch at a restaurant with panoramic views of the city.
We moved on the center of Old Cusco were we went for a "gravity" walk. That meant, we had the pleasure of walking downhill! After a brief description by our guide, we had a chance to wander around on our own and walk back to our hotel at our own pace. Gregg took lots of photos of buildings and I shopped
This is a cool fountain near our hotel:
Tonight we attended a program of folk dancing and had dinner at a local pizzeria. It was another full day with perfect weather.
Did you buy me anything?
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