Museos

Last night was miserable trying to sleep because of my cough. I was up at all hours of the night sipping on hot tea to try to stop coughing and sometimes coughing so hard that I had to run to the bathroom to throw up. I bought some medicine today but I don’t know if it will work or if I will just have to let this run its course. I get a roommate this weekend though and I will have to start sharing a room with someone again when I get back from Arequipa, so I need to get rid of it by then so I don’t keep her up all night too!

Today I went to the rest of the places on my tourist card that I could since some of the other ruins were too far away and would require another day trip. First, I saw the Pachacuteq monument in the center of town. He was an Incan warrior who now is honored by a large statue on top of a brick cylinder that you can go walk up inside and see a great view of Cusco. On the way up there were pictures of other Incan warriors and some artifacts from Incan times.

After, I went to three different museums. I couldn’t take pictures in the first two museums, but the first was so lame and the second was so bizarre that I don’t think I would have even wanted the pictures for my memory or to show any of you either. I guess I am not really the museum type person because I was extremely confused and didn’t see the “art” in much of what I was looking at. I probably only spent around 20 minutes in each museum because that was about all I could stand of how weird some of the things were and their lack of any sort of creativeness in my eyes.

The first place I visited was the Museo de Sitio del Qoricancha which was extremely boring. I could tell the few things they did have were replicas and the rest of the small museum was just pictures with descriptions. There was one interesting part however that described how some of the ancient children were born with deformed heads and in order to fix them they would wrap straps around tightly to bring them back to shape. Also, back in those times in order to relieve extreme headaches due to fluid in the brain, doctors would drill holes in people’s skulls to release the tension only under general anesthesia. It said that only 65% would survive the procedure.

The next museum I went to was the Museo de Arte Popular which was filled with the creepiest figurines you could imagine. There were probably 30 cases in a small room each filled with different representations of Cusqueno life. The slightly normal ones were models of the city, many Jesus’ and Saints, Condors, and Peruvian people doing their various daily jobs. Others that were very disturbing and I might have actually wanted to take pictures of just to show and then delete were a doctor pulling a baby out of a woman’s stomach, a baby suckling off its mother, a bloody battle with body parts spread around the Plaza, and many others that I have already displaced from my mind.

The last museum I went to was the Museo Municipal de Arte Contemporaneo which was full of paintings. Those downstairs were awful to say the least. In my opinion it looked like a child took a paint brush and scribbled 5 colors of paint on a canvas and called it art. In the middle of the museum was a beautiful outdoor fountain that I asked a couple to take a picture of me in front of. I was much more pleased with the art in the center and the upstairs of the museum. They were actually paintings of things not just splashes of colors. I enjoyed the paintings of Peruvian people in their indigenous dress and there was one of the old highland beer called “Chicha” that I have yet to try and I am not sure if I will due to how it is made. The people chew on corn and then spit out the juice into a large bucket which they let sit out to ferment and then that is made into the drink. My favorite of course was one painting called “Perros y Gatos” (dogs and cats) of some dogs knocking the cat’s milk off a table.

When I finished with the museums it was time to go to Colibri to see my kiddies! On the way I saw a site that left me completely stunned and at a loss for words in that moment. In the middle of Avenida Sol, the main street of Cusco, there was a little boy, probably around age 4 or 5, squatting with his pants pulled all the way down taking a poop in the sewer. I stood there in shock with my mouth wide open with three other tourists. That was definitely something you only see in a third world country!

I went to placement and helped my favorite little girls with their homework. They are practicing their cursive handwriting right now and have to draw pictures along with the words they write which helps me learn the words when I don’t know them. Some of the volunteers said they might be interested in going to Pisco with me and tomorrow Laura and I are going to check into some more bus company prices before we have our first day of tandem Spanish at 3:00.

After Colibri I walked home to Laura’s house near San Pedro which is much different than where I live. It was cool to see where some of the other volunteers live and what it would be like to be staying in a dorm style rather than a home stay. Their place had 4 floors and each room was shared by 3 people. They had a total of 15 people there from all over the world: Germany, Australia, Canada, USA, and Ireland. I think it would be fun to live there and to be able to walk everywhere rather than have to always take a taxi like us since we live far from downtown.

We are watching Vicky, Christina, Barcelona now which I have never seen before so I am off! I hope I can sleep tonight and that the medicine works! We want to see the Cocoa museum sometime this week and are still trying to figure out when we will go rafting. Thursday is Corpus Christi, a big Christian holiday here brought over by the Spaniards. There is supposed to be a big celebration in the cathedrals in the morning and parties all day afterward around the Plaza. It should be really cool to see such a great cultural event! SO for now, adios amigos!

-Hillary-