PERU!

We finally made it to our last country, Peru. We stayed in Lima for a night and then caught a flight to Cuzco. Cuzco is a beautiful ancient city that has become very popular since Macchu Picchu has been found. It was once the main city of the Inca Empire and is now the continent's oldest continuously inhabited city. We were a little taken aback at first because it is SO touristy, but we mostly liked it. One thing that was very annoying is the fact that everywhere you walk around the city, you are harrassed by people trying to get you to buy things or go into their restaurants or their movies, etc. In one bar, we saw a shirt that said 'No Gracias' and that would have been perfect.


As you can see in these pictures, it really is a beautiful city with its old churches and wonderful architecture.


The people watching is one of the things I have enjoyed most. Since I slacked in other countries afraid to take pictures, I started here by taking them behind backs or asking first and paying a small tip to get these wonderful photos. The women here are amazingly strong carrying everything you can imagine on their back. Children are almost always carried on the back in the way that you can see here - just wrapped up in blankets hanging. This young boy was already quite strong, too loading this huge cart around town.


We made a trip to the Inca Museum, where we learned a lot about the Incas, as well as the many Indian populations before them in Peru. We could not take pictures in the museum, but all of the artifacts and everything were awesome to see. In the courtyard of this museum were women weaving their beautiful tapestries. They brought their cute little ones along to play as wel.