It’s nice to be back at the Inca Wasi Hotel in Cusco. We slept until 8:30 am and barely made it
down to breakfast before they stopped serving.
It’s going to be a slow and relaxing day for us. Time to recuperate from our adventure at
Machu Picchu.
By ten o’clock we were out the door to visit two Museums
that are on our Tourist Pass and both are located with two blocks of the
hotel. Our first stop was at the Cusco
City Hall.
The Museum of Contemporary Art is located on two floors in
various rooms along with their meeting rooms and offices. We were allowed to take as many photos as we
wanted; what an unusual event! We were
surrounded by groups of school children but you’ll enjoy the photos of the
hacienda style building with the inner court that all of the rooms are off of.
Our next Museum was the Museum of Regional History. No photos, but I took a couple for you. This was very historical art and
artifacts. One of the artist who’s work
was displayed is also known as the Peruvian Michaelangelo: Aloisio Bernardo Joan Democrito Bitti who
lived from 1548 – 1610. He was an
Italian priest who came to Peru and stayed.
A quote was printed on one wall that I took a photo of so
that we could pass it on to you as it is so beautiful. It was written by Mario Vargas Llosa –
Peruvian, Noble Prize in Literature 2010
“Museums
are as necessary for countries as schools and hospitals….They also heal,
not
bodies, but minds of darkness that is ignorance, prejudice, superstition and
all
the defects that isolate human beings from one another, and fester them and
push
to kill themselves. Museums….they sharp
the sensibility, stimulate the
imagination,
refine the sentiments, and wake up people in the critical and self-critical
spirit. Progress does not only mean many schools,
hospitals and roads. Also and
maybe,
above all, the wisdom that makes us capable of differentiating the ugly from
the
beautiful, the intelligent from the stupid, the good from the bad and the
tolerable of
the
intolerable, that we call culture.”
It was about noon when we walked slowly back to the
hotel. Stopped at an ATM to get enough
cash for the balance of our trip. Then
into the hotel where we enjoyed several hours of playing our favorite card game
Hand & Foot. We’d played one hand
last Monday which I’d won; we continued that game and Jim beat me by thousands
of points. But he agreed to a second
game and I reversed the trend and did the same to him. The ladies at the front desk brought us a
plate of delicious chocolates while we played cards in the atrium.
We’re in the room now catching up on computer work and
plan to eat dinner tonight at a lovely restaurant that gets rave reviews and is
located on the Plaza. I’ll let you know
when we get back how good it is before I close the journal for today.
Jim found another restaurant close by but a short walk
uphill that sounded really good. We
walked uphill for about three blocks and found two Museums to go to tomorrow
along the way. We also found some five
star hotels. But the restaurant was
closed. We’ll have to check tomorrow to
see if it’s open. So we resorted to our
original plan and enjoyed a wonderful dinner at El Meson de Espaderos
overlooking the Plaza. While we ate
there was a political parade around the Plaza that added some spice to the
evening. Great food and nice décor;
always nice to see cloth napkins on the tables. We each had a beer, shared a plate of blood sausage
and fries then we each had a bowl of soup.
It has looked like rain all evening but we made it back to the hotel
without opening the umbrellas.
While walking home I snapped a photo of this sign in an expensive shop: Black Friday....shades of America have arrived in Peru!
Another day is over and we’re enjoying an HBO movie with
Spanish subtitles right now. Not sure
of the name but it’s funny.
Thanks for sharing our day and it’s a small slideshow tonight.
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