Cusco

Sadly, our time with Compassion came to an end Wednesday night and we became tourists the rest of the week. It was amazing to have the opportunity to travel into the Andes mountains and visit more of the country of Peru, but I would have loved to spend the rest of the week visiting more Compassion projects.

Thursday morning we flew from Lima to Cusco. We had the rest of the day to tour Cusco and get acclimated to the higher altitude. We were all dragging after a couple hours - that altitude hits you like a sack of bricks!

We started our tour at the Santo Domingo Monastery.

This monastery is built over Incan ruins. These ruins are amazingly symmetrical and so interesting to look at.

Then we went on to Cusco's Cathedral - inside there is a painting of the Last Supper by Marcos Zapata. It has an Andean touch with Christ and his disciples enjoying a meal of roasted guinea pig and drinking chicha (a drink made from purple corn). Eating guinea pig in Peru is quite common. We saw it on a couple different menus and one person ordered Guinea pig ravioli which several of us tried. (tastes like pork)




Here are some photos of the town square - it was beautiful there.









We ate lunch on this very narrow balcony, overlooking the town square. There were tables for two and I sat with Elia, who helped me order the most delicious soup.



It was here that I had my first taste of coca tea. It is from the same leaf cocaine is derived.