Saturday, November 12, 2011

Saturday November 12th – More to see in Cusco

This morning’s adventures started with a trip across the city, past the airport to a residential facility for children from ages 5 to 18 (and up if necessary) who have various disabilities. We witnessed children who are autistic, mentally delayed, hearing and speech impaired, and other suffering from various other congenital disabilities. The children were excited to see us and we were greeted with hugs, smiles and a great deal of laughter. Many of the children really enjoyed having their pictures taken, then looking at the results on the digital cameras. One young man really wanted to takke pictures with my camera, and thanks to the quick shutter speed took about 30 pictures in quick succession without pointing the camera. One resulting picture is a
delightful shot of one of the other children.
By the end of our visit, the facility was in receipt of several hundreds of dollars (some given by Rostad on behalf of the group and some directly by group members), many pencils, games, bubbles, socks and soccer balls – and other things that were hiding in plastic bags and not visible to the writer. The facility is in constant need of donations, so the head mistress gave us the
website and email address for the organization. It is http://www.chaskawasi.org/ email h_estrellas@yahoo.com (the space between the h and estrellas is _.
Next stop was the White Jesus where we stopped and took pictures from this magnificent view point overlooking Cusco.
Just a short trip down the road was the Alpaca Factory/store where we had the chance to purchase genuine Alpaca products – sweaters, gloves, hats, etc and beautiful silver articles.
A few dollars and sols were left behind at this stop. Later in the evening we had a fashion show with the following ladies and gentlemen showing off their purchases.
There is a lady in our hotel courtyard every day who sits for hours weaving table runners that can take up to a month to complete. She always has a lamb with her and is always willing to share a smile and a friendly greeting.
Next stop – back to the hotel to drop off our purchases and other things, then head off to the Cathedral on foot – just a few short blocks away. This is truly a magnificent cathedral with lots of gold and silver ornaments and trimmings, but sorry – no inside pictures. The most interesting piece of art was a Peruvian rendition of the last supper in which the disciples are about to dine on Guinea Pig.
From here – on to lunch, shopping and a bit of free time before supper. Then early to rise
because tomorrow is very early – a 4:30 AM wake-up call will get us going on our way to the train to Machu Picchu.

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