Market Day

We had several meetings scheduled the next day, but also made a run to the market, to see what kinds of shopping we could start for the activity centers. Since the meeting with the Mayor moved to the late afternoon, we went to the market in the morning. Off to Mercado de San Pedro....

 Beautiful cobbles, aren't they? It's a real Inka road. Imagine all the people who have walked this road before us.....

 Corn in the U.S. is so boring! Check out these lovely varieties. Corn as we know it was developed by indigenous people, although centuries of crop manipulation has largely standardized the product. I'm so glad these remain in other places!

 Same with potatoes. Did you know that there are more than 300 types of potatoes in the Andes? And that the indigenous peoples of the region basically invented freeze drying as a method to preserve potatoes long-term? (No, I didn't learn these things on my trip; they're standard teaching material at the museum.)

 Medicinal herbs. R was amazed at the quantity and variety available here. No, I have no idea what any of them are.....

 This market was huge, and incredible. Not only did it have artisans, it also had food vendors. Not only did it have produce vendors, it also had eating establishments. This shot looks out over the restaurant area. Fascinating place, with whole chickens on the counters, ready to eat.

 One of our target purchases: tire sandals! We also bought most of the clothing at this market: children's traditional outfits, ponchos with hats, fancy decorated hats called chullos, .....

Masks! None of these for us this trip, but they were fun to look at.

 These are some of the floats from the big parade that happened over the weekend. Most of the floats are student projects from the many art schools in town.

One of the things I learned at the market was that alpaca is only worn by people. If you want wool for anything else, you use llama wool. Good to know!

Otherwise, we downloaded video from Inti Raymi and I learned new vocabulary for the pharmacy to get some pills for my throat, which was starting to bother me. [It would turn into a full-on sinus assault of congestion and cough, all of which the locals assured me was due to the altitude and the unseasonably cold -- it was cold at night! -- and unusually extra-dry air. Whatever the cause, it was rough. Not sleeping when you're working 12 hour days is no fun. No voice when you have business meetings with very important people is a problem. And it stuck with me until Ecuador.]

We met with several consultants this day. Our meeting with the Mayor, in the end, was late and brief, but very good. R and A presented the model and the exhibition plan. All was well-received, and I think there is really good support for production work next year, both filming and possibly 3-D photography. Everyone seemed pleased. After, we had dinner with another consultant. A was leaving in the morning and R and I had a field trip planned.