Cuzco, Shopping Day
December 21st, 2005
Exhausted but happy after Machu Picchu, we came back to Cuzco and declared a shopping day. We did less shopping then walking, but in the end we met some very cool people.
Anywhere you go in Cuzco, you get hustled by little children who sell everything from finger puppets to clothing. It´s normal, they and their families need the money, but here is the crazy thing – all these children speak better English then most grown-ups in travel agencies around town. I would think an office job is much better for a ten year old then selling trinkets on the street, but maybe they know something that I don´t.
Today, for example, we were pretty much attacked by two little girls who wanted us to buy something, and when they saw they will get nothing from us but “No gracias”, they mooved on to plain old baging for money, saying it’s for food. It’s an age old technic, but you can not feed every child on the street. Every time I have left over food in a restaurant, I ask them to pack it up and I give it away, but this time I had only a couple hard candies in my bag, so that is what I gave to the girls. “Esta no comida (This is not food),” said the girls judgementaly. And then in perfect English: “This is bad for teeth!”
Later that day we met another character. A very opinionated Peruvian artist whose work depicts caricatures like Bush as a doctor, delivering Hitler’s baby who happens to be Sharon. Our Spanish was not good enough to understand what exactly he meant, but when I asked “Sharon? Nazi?” He replied “Si, si!” with a very convincing face. We talked some more using something like a mix of Spanish, English, and sign language, and bought some 4′x5′ photos of his work. If anybody is interested, I can take pictures of those as well and post them here.
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Our last find was a Peruvian crafts woman, Dilma Pecho, that we found in one of the markets carving up a small gourd with intricate detail with out sketch to work from what so ever. We spoke and found out that depending on the size of the gourd and the carved detail, she is only asking 10 soles (about $3) for a day of her work. We saw similar gourds in pretty much every market we’ve been to, but this time we had the opportunity to witness and appreciate the artist, so we bought one that took three days to make.
Tags: market
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Places»South America»Peru |
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