Days 5-9: First Week of Classes

May 21-25, 2018
I don't have very many photos from this week since all I did was go to class and visit museums for the most part. I'm taking two classes while I'm in Cusco: history of the Incas and contemporary society of Peru, both in Spanish. So far, so great.

The museums are pretty cool here, but no photos are allowed at any of them. My favorite exhibit was of the mummified bodies of some Incans. Of course, I didn't get a picture of that, but I did manage to get one of some skulls, if you're into that stuff (I am).

These skulls are elongated. The Incans would alter the skulls of people in the higher class. Also, you can see holes in the skulls from surgeries they performed back then.

On Thursday, something pretty cool (but inconvenient for my roommates and I) happened. In Cusco, there was a transportation strike. This meant no taxis, no buses, no cars. Nothing. It was neat to witness. I've never seen a strike where almost the whole city participated. What they were protesting was mainly an increase in gas prices and taxes.

Most schools and businesses were closed, but of course our school was not. We were able to catch a taxi early in the morning since they stopped circulating at 7, but we had to walk home. It was about a 45-50 minute walk. My first class wasn't until 11, so I walked around the streets all morning and saw some of the strike. People laid out large rocks and other debris on the roads so that anyone who decided to drive their car couldn't pass. There were a few people who tried to drive, but if the debris didn't stop them, protestors would stand in the middle of the road and block their passage. I also saw one car with slashed tires. What I saw of it was not violent, as long as you didn't drive a car. Usually the streets here are packed, but on Thursday they were empty. I've never seen anything like it. (Ps, I walked 25,000 steps by the end of that day)

Avenida del Sol. This is usually one of the busiest streets, but on Thursday it was empty due to the strike.

One of the groups of protestors.

People laid out rocks on the streets to prevent people from driving.

On Friday we had a field trip with my contemporary society class. We visited el Mercado de San Pedro, which was designed by the same guy who designed the Eiffel Tower. Unfortunately, it's falling apart, but no one is sure how it should be repaired since it's such a historical building. The inside is crazy. Everything is sold there, from food to clothes to shaman necessities. One section, where people sold animal intestines and organs, was particularly gross. While there, we tried a bunch of cool fruits that I had never seen or heard of before. We also tried cow foot collagen, which is pretty much the same thing as Jello.

I didn't manage to take any pictures inside of San Pedro Market because it was so crowded and I didn't want to have my phone out for fear of losing it or it being stolen, so here's one from Google. It makes it look much cleaner than it really was.

Actually, jk. I did manage to take a single picture. This one shows more of what it was really like to be in there. It was crazy.

Passionfruit! Looks disgusting, tastes good. And it's a superfood.

After the market, we visited a kind of religious cult. The people there are Catholic (I believe), but they also worship this mummified corpse called el Niño Compadrito, who they believe will bring them justice or help them out with whatever they need. We were able to walk inside the building and actually see the Niño Compadrito. It was an odd experience, though. We had to enter in small groups, take no pictures, look very quickly, and then get out (I was only in the building for maybe 30 seconds). Tales of the Niño Compadrito are a bit spooky, but its pretty interesting to read about.

Here's a link to an article about the Niño Comadrito:
http://publications.nichibun.ac.jp/region/d/NSH/series/kosh/2001-03-30-1/s001/s016/pdf/article.pdf

Found this picture online of the Niño Compadrito. Supposedly, it is bad luck to take a picture of him, so I feel bad for whoever took this one. Anyway, this is who we saw when we looked in the building.

After that stop, we visited la Catedral in the main plaza. It was incredible. I've never been inside such a beautiful building. Unfortunately, I couldn't take pictures in there either, but it's not like they would have done it justice anyway. The cathedral had some cool influences from the Incan culture in there too.

Here's the outside since I couldn't take any pics of the inside.

We ended our field trip in a small restaurant where our professor bought us some local food to try. It included cow intestines, cow udder, and cow tongue. They weren't all that bad.

Cow intestines. Tasted good, but the texture grossed me out.

Cow udder. Texture was better, but the taste wasn't the best.