Cuzco


A free day in Cuzco, but we keep pretty busy! We get to sleep in a little (7am). Nice breakfast at the hotel with lots of fruit including our new favorite granaria. (like a larger sweeter passion-fruit) and an omelet bar.
At 9am, Andreas takes a few of us to the Alpaca factory store. They give us a good description of how to tell between the fakes and the real thing, the different grades, and how things are made. The clothing in the store is expensive but beautiful. I fall in love with one of the first sweaters I see and decide to treat myself. Even if I buy nothing else here I'm satisfied. We stroll back towards our hotel, the morning started off cool, but it's warming up now. We stop for a coffee, then back to our hotel to get changed and ready for our cooking class at noon.
We are picked up by Melanie our guide for the market part of the tour. Karen and I are joined by a couple from Catalonia, and we walk a few block over to the market. We can\t go into the usual one, the San Pedro, as once a month they close it for 3 days to give it a clean! This meant the market today was quite chaotic, but we saw lots of different foods. Including whole dried potatoes, common here but I'd never seen.
Back to the cooking class to join 5 more ladies from US, Australia and Switzerland. Very fun class lead by Bruno. We first made a Pisco Sour, then a quinoa salad, then beef lomo saltado. Of course we got to eat and drink everything we made. Afterwards we had strawberry ice-cream and a star-fruit sour for dessert. We got back to the hotel about 4:30, and decide to visit the nearby Qorikancha. It has as it's base the Incan Sun temple that the Spanish destroyed and built the Church and Convent of Santo Domingo on top. Quite unique and beautiful. By the time we walk back to our hotel it's getting cold and we are ready for a cup of tea and a rest.
This evening 6 of us go to a nearby restaurant for a light meal. I have an appetizer dish of  causa with 3 different toppings. I've had this a few times and really like it. A mashed potato cake with either a filling in the middle or on top. A glass of nice Peruvian red wine to go with it.
I then need to re-organize my suitcase as I haven't done it since I returned from the trek. Not too late a night as we're off to Puno tomorrow.









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