We took today as a rest day. After breakfast I walked into our courtyard and saw Nefisa and Pete relaxing... the same couple who had camped next to us on our second night of the trek and chatted with over coffee on the next day. The 5 of us all seemed to need a slow day, and we ended up chatting away the morning... about travels, London, Boulder, running, ski/snowboarding, etc. They're biking from Patagonia north on a 6 month trip, after having done a similar sabbatical adventure through India and southeast Asia... seems like something I should look into. We grabbed a good lunch together and then parted ways.
The 3 of us walked Cuzco for the rest of the day. Part of our adventure included a stop in the grocery store... we found super cheap prices on everything and I jokingly thought that this is where we should have been shopping the whole time. We also walked through the Mercado Central.... wow. I think we were the only tourists there. I saw café con leche for S/.1.50 (roughly $.45) so I sat down for a cup. I received a cup filled 95% of the way with curdling and boiling milk. I filled the rest with very good coffee and drank my cup, pretending I wasn't drinking curdled milk fat. Quite the experience. At one point what looked like string cheese stuck to my lips and hung from my mouth after taking a sip... Tony and Shelly laughed. I couldn't finish the bottom of the cup with all the stuff floating in there. Afterwards we walked past vendors selling cow noses... it looked like they had used an axe and chopped right in front of the eyes ( teeth, skin, nose, bone, and lower jaw were all left on). I guess you would add that to a soup?? Pig heads were for sale on the next table... eyelashes included. The pigs seemed to have a content look on their decapitated faces... very strange. I had to block it out and keep walking. I have a much better appreciation for our sources of food after this. I also have a greater desire to alter my diet towards vegetarianism. Quite the market. So much of this experience is foreign to me, but great to have seen in person and done.
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