A Casual Day in Cusco

After a whirlwind of adventure, sadly it's our last day in Peru. We do have most of the day to explore the historic town centre before heading to the airport for an evening series of flights.

We started the day by heading to the Plaza de Armas both because I (shamefully) wanted a real, espresso based Starbucks coffee after many days of instant powder and to pick up our whitewater rafting photos. Just behind the main tourist shops of the Plaza, we found a series of small stalls off an alleyway. We immediately began the day's priority task - shopping!

I'll save you the details, but suffice it to say I think we went to every single stall in the historic district of Cusco looking at scarves, sweaters, hats, mitts, etc. 

We wandered back toward the San Francisco Market which we were dismayed to find was closed for a reason we didn't discover. There was a bit of a fair happening on the streets surrounding the market, so we strolled around taking in people's day to day lives. 

After meandering the market, we made our way back to Plaza de Armas for a few last Pisco Sours on a balcony overlooking the square. I had a delicious gooseberry/physallus pisco and took photos from afar. One kid had a cool battery powered car. 

Other kids were jealous. 

Other kids were too busy playing POGs, or cars, or ducky. 

Some had excellent microfashion. 

We left the Plaza and headed for the main road -  Ave El Sol. Just leaving the cathedral square was a group of nuns. Which may be called a cloister or clowder. Or maybe that's cats...

We passed quite a few parks and churches in our somewhat directionless amble. 

Feathered locals too. 

A spirited game of super fast jump rope. 

On a street of no particular remark we passed a shoe shop selling beautiful leather boots with Peruvian fabric inlays. Okay, we almost passed the shop but instead went in to try on everything in store in our sizes and for me to come back with these. The shoemaker said he could even do custom work in just a few days. Our rotten luck that we found him on the last days in the last hours (good luck for my wallet though because I wanted all the shoes!). 

On our way to grab a last dinner at a polleria, I spotted another lady in traditional wear walking her llama. This time I made double sure to check that it was actually a llama (technically alpaca) and not a lamb before losing my mind. LLAMA FACE SMUSHING!

The last local we met was an adorable (and unwelcome) dog that kept sneaking in the polleria. I didn't feed him. I swear! *wink*

Picking up some pisco, stuffing our bags full with mementos, and saying adios to Peru we were off to the airport for nearly 24 hours in transit home. 

Hasta luego South America!