There are people on the streets trying to sell you things, or have you take a photo and pay for it. They walk around with llamas or little goats for you to pose with, but you have to pay. When it started raining they put their things away and brought out raincoats and umbrellas! There are so many wonderful things for sale in the shops but Pepe says to wait for the markets. I haven't bought anything yet, not even a postcard - just not had a chance! But later that day....... What a day we've had today, and it hasn't even finished! We're just having a rest before we go out to dinner with our group. And what a lovely group it is is! All of the women are just lovely, and so are the fellows. Nice leisurely start today, meeting after breakfast at 8.30am. The bus picked us up down the road - the street is so narrow he's not supposed to stop here. First we went to the Convent of Saint Domingo del Cusco. I thought "oh no, not another church" but this one had the most interesting story. The church is also called by the Inca name of Qorikancha because it has some amazing Inca ruins. The Spaniards usually knocked down all of the Incan places of worship and even used their rocks to build their own churches. So in this church they used the Incan buildings as a foundation for their own buildings. They built the first floor of the cloisters, using Adobe, over the top of the Incan buildings, and covered the walls of the Incan structures with plaster, and decorated with catholic motifs. All of the silver and gold Incan statues were melted down and shipped back to Spain. The church remained this way until 1950 when a major earthquake destroyed the Adobe buildings and they collapsed inside the Incan buildings which had been built back in the 1400s. We were shown how the Incan buildings were made in such a way that they had a window in each one that allowed you to see right through to the end one. We also saw how the Incan blocks fitted together - in a way very similar to Lego. And we also saw one huge block that was carved in such a way that it had several corners, allowing it to wrap around one side of a doorway to inside the room. After that we were taken in the bus to out of town, up one of the massive hills. We went to Baths of Tambomachay, which is a series of aqueducts, canals and waterfalls that run through the terraced rocks. Part of it was also used for the burials of priests. I bought a lovely rug for my knees in winter from some Peruvian people by the side of the road there. After that we went to Sacsayhuaman which was an old Inca settlement. Until later years it was just used as a place to bring your kids for picnics, now it is recognised for the importance it had in the Incan Civilisation. The Incas brought the potatoes to us - early on it was just a poisonous tuber but they cultivated it and modified it to be the potato we know today. On our way back to town we stopped at two factories to learn about local artisans - a textile factory (yes, I bought a scarf made of baby alpaca wool and silk), and a jeweller (hmm, I was drawn to a beautiful piece of silver jewellery, very unusual I know). The baby alpaca wool is not actually baby alpaca, it is the first shearing of the alpaca and therefore the softest and finest. They shear it again and then a third time to make more common garments, but then they use it for meat. We then returned to town where we went to a cafe for empanadas for lunch before going on to the San Pedro market. It is mostly a food market, and I thought it would not be very interesting, but our guide took us to see the unusual fruits and foods they have there. Pepe bought some of the more unusual ones to feed to us tomorrow. It was really interesting, and I may have bought some souvenirs! Then we returned for a rest, and we have to pack an overnight bag for the next two nights. Our suitcases will stay here in Cuzco at the Novotel till we return. For dinner tonight we walked halfway across town for Peruvian Chinese!!!