Friday 17 February 2012 - Cuzco

A free day today with good sleep-in until 08:30.  After breakfast there was time to catch up on Blog writing and answer some urgent emails which kept me going until 12:30.  Malcolm and I then ventured out to the Inca Museum which although basic is still very interesting.  Just as we were leaving the rain started so we wandered around the upper floor balcony which a covered "hacienda style" and found a young lady and her brother carving beautifully detailed miniature Inca pictures onto dried gourds.  The work is so detailed and tiny that it is difficult to see without a magnifying glass, yet the carving is done with the naked eye.  I had to buy two as they are too beautiful not too!  As the rain had not yet stopped we continued our exploration of the external precinct of the museum and entered another room which had a musician playing hand made Inca traditional instruments.  He had various clay animal shaped instruments which when filled with water and tipped forwards and backwards imitate various animal sounds and if we had not been in the room we would have believed these to be from the real living animal. The musician then played for us and as was to be expected Malcolm purchased a pan-flute and normal flute and I a CD.  By now the rain had ceased and we walked a short distance around the corner to the pre-Columbian museum housed in a more substantial building and displaying a large collection of silver, gold, shell and pottery objects.  The skill of these early Peruvian craftsmen matches those of ancient Egypt, Rome or medieval Europe.  By 19:00 we were in need of a good meal we had not eaten since breakfast.  Near the hotel we discovered a tiny pizzeria which produced a very tasty pizza with the "lot" and a good bottle of wine. At the only other occupied table sat a Canadian/French couple, who when we told them about the birth of the baby Llama, indicated that they were the couple who had helped with the delivery because the Llama was having a difficult time and the locals didn't know what to do.  the Canadians were husband and wife and also doctor and nurse.  By 20:00 we were back at the hotel and found Michelle, the American lady waiting for us. We had a drink with her and called it a night at22:00.