Pisaq market

Today I visited the Pisaq market for the fun of riding the bus and seeing the beautiful views again and for the fun of enjoying all the beautiful works of folk art. I spent there a few hours and I picked the things that I most liked: another smaller blanket which is like coffee, deep brown with just a little of other colors; a bronze pin which is a replica of the Inca pin in the form of a condor used for putting together the ends of a poncho; a hand-painted, oil on canvas, replica of La Virgen di la Leche (Matka Boska mleczna?) or The Virgin Mary of Milk originally painted by one of the painters of the Cusquenian School - one of the paintings of the breast-feeding Mary which I so admired at the Museo Regional. I also bought the knitted finger puppets of many animals among them lama, vacuna, alpaca and sheep. Lama is the tallest and biggest of them. Alpaca looks like a smaller lama, vacuna is a mix of lama and alpaca, and sheep is, well, a sheep. They all give wool from which all the wonderful blankets, sweathers, socks, hats and mittens are made. And, I bought these amazing birds made of some kind of a dried fruit, wider at the base and narrower at the neck. They are birds but the base is carved to present the life of the people living in the villages. I bought five of them because each of them represents a different scene: there's a woman weaving, a man loading burden on lama's back, people cultivating land, etc. "The birds" are most amazing pieces of folk art that I have ever seen. You will see them one day. I talked to many people on the market, mostly about their art - because many of them sell what they make - and about the pre-columbian art because they are also selling many replicas which are made with the use of the same materials used so long ago.

I came back exhausted because it was very hot today but I met on my way back Rosemary who is a Peruvian from Lima (I met her during the tour to the three villages on my second day in Cuzco) and we went for dinner together. We ended up talking for two hours. I took her to my favorite restaurant which serves dinnner for $1 and she loved the food. I find that the cheapest restaurants serve the best food and the atmosphere is really nice. Rosemary is a very nice and interesting person. We exchanged addresses and I will visit her when I go back to Lima. Rosmary doesn't speak a word in English so the conversation in Spanish wiped me out - it requires amazing amount of energy on my part still to converse in Spanish about subjects more difficult than daily life.

I see that I didn't finish my thought about the movie yesterday... about stepping into the pain. What I wanted to say is that the whole movie was really about it. It was about doing what you have to do, no matter how hard and scary it may be, because no one will do it for you. It's about getting the courage to do what has to be done, and not avoiding it, till the end, literaly. And that it doesn't matter how long life is but how good it is.

Well, with that thought I will say good bye for today and step into... the cold shower and that, I have to say, is painful... but I am getting used to it. I am grateful for any water, even if it's freezing cold... brrrrr. I designed a system: first a big toe of the right leg, then the foot, the the other toe, the other foot, then one arm, the other arm, and that's about it... Just kidding! I occasionally get my whole body washed at one time but it's tough because evenings and mornings in Cuzco are cold, cold, cold.