Cusco is full of centers, Plazas, squares, and other such enchanting little spots in which people can gather around the benches in the warm, sunny afternoons, or linger around the lit fountains in the brisk evenings. After walking for a few blocks you're bound to encounter one of these pretty places. My hostel was located right on one of these Plazas, two blocks from the main Plaza de Armas. A bit off the beaten track but still clearly within the tourist sector, the Plaza San Francisco was safe, busy at times but calm at others, close to both the markets frequented by tourists and the restaurants and shops where the foreignest person they see all day is the one who wandered past because they were lost. Just two blocks the other direction from the main Plaza, through a majestic-looking arch you can find el Mercado San Pedro, full of everything from granola to earrings to raw meat to socks. Fruit, souvenirs, and warm clothing are the most popular items found two blocks North of that arch...
Looking out the front window of my hostel, the plaza looks normal enough. A few times I looked out and could almost have imagined myself back in the states. But then the music started and just a few yards to the left, or right, there were people dancing. Little boys, teenage girls, middle-aged women with babies strapped in blankets to the backs, old men. Traditional music, traditional dancing, and the ever-present smiles.
News flash: that is NOT San Francisco. I don't remember who he is, but his pedestal lives in a star, and that is what a yukka plant looks likes when it's been given time to mature.
Just a normal street scene. Flags, flowers, clouds, sunshine, blue balconies or doors, and down below it people of every size, color, shape, and dress persuasion. As in, people wearing sweatshirts walking next to those in kapris and sleeveless tops. Incan-looking blankets-turned-backpacks walking next to Peruvian preppy khakis. 2-year-olds in llama sweaters hand-in-hand with alpaca-swathed babies on the backs of their cotten-garbed parents. And then more jeans-and-T-shirters.
Never a dull day. Just when you think you've seen all the random statues and memorials and even all the fountains, gates, outfits, and cathedrals, well, you look down and... Is that an alligator made out of flowers? Thank you, Cusco, I needed a smile today!
Never a dull night either...
From pink to red to purple to blue to green to white and back to pink... This fountain is just one of very many that a curious explorer will encounter on the streets surrounding the Plaza de Armas, the Plaza San Francisco and every other out-lying plaza, center, square, and even corner in the Ancient Incan Wonderland.
Developing country? Yes. Rampant poverty? Yes. Much lower standard of living? Yes. Gorgeous anyway? Yes. Happy populace anyway? Yes. Wonderful place to visit anyway? Yes. Perfect pictures anyway? Yes. Would I go back anyway? In a heartbeat.
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