On my second day in Cusco the sun was shining and I decided to have my breakfast of Cicciolina's Italian coffee and French croissant on the plaza de Armas. I had also brought some books and was looking forward to a quiet and sunny day...
Contrary to the Plaza de Armas in Lima no gringo hunters seemed to be on the stalk and I enjoyed my coffee and took this cute picture of an old indigenous lady and her little granddaughter. Just a moment before I took the picture the little girl was firmly holding her grandmother´s hand in both hands - they seemed to be very close and very fond of each other. A very cute sight in commercial and hectic Cusco!
Hola, a little voice said, and woke me up from daydreaming. Hola, señorita! A little guy of about 12, 13 years sat down next to me and offered me his services as a guide. He told me that he didn´t have any money to go to school and that he hadn´t eaten all day long. The usual story, I guess. But as I hadn´t any other plans we kept on chatting. An old man in full poncho-outfit walked by and handed me a leaflet of a children´s art museum - the "Irq'i Yachay", Quechua for "Wisdom of the children". It belongs to an organization or project of art teachers who travel to remote indegenous Andean communities, painting and doing handicrafts with the children. I asked Juan to guide me there and he wanted to join me in visiting the museum. Some of the paintings of the kids are shown in the museum - really lovely! They also show a movie about the project and both the children and their works are just wonderfull! (http://www.aylluyupaychay.org/) Little guide Juan also seemed to enjoy the museum and in return for guiding me to the museum I invited him to a burger in "Bembo´s", his choice, a cusqueño Mc Donald's-style fast food chain right on Plaza de Armas. It was raining so we sat down on the balcony and enjoyed the view over Cusco. Juan is a nice little kid but as it seems very corrupted by money and material things. Be it his parents or the society - he lost the childlike and naive way of other children his age and just keeps on talking about how poor he is and how hungry... ("Juan, do you like football?" - "Yes, but I don´t have a ball, and I don´t have money to buy it..." and so on...) I didn´t believe much of it and decided to leave. I called Alvaro, a couchsurfer I had contacted via mail because he had a very interesting profile and he was free to meet me for lunch.
Alvaro studied cinema in Rio de Janeiro and speaks perfect Portuguese - what a relieve! :-) I had spoken to Bill on skype and was more on Portuguese mode than Spanish. We chatted about Rio, Brazil, movies, Cusco... and had lunch in a nice little place off the Plaza de Armas. After lunch it started to rain and we Alvaro took me to an interesting little cafe-restaurant, the Aldea Yanapay restaurant, part of the Aldea Yanapay social project, where "the decorations take you back to your childhood". ( http://www.aldeayanapay.org/) I taught Alvaro "Shitty Head" and he agreed that it is highly addictive! Later on we went to the market for a juice and had some coca tea at his place, swapping lists of Brazilian movies against East European ones. Karl, Alvaro´s Couchsurfer from Portland, Oregon, soon joined us and we went to have dinner at a vegetarian place together. Karl is about 2m tall, has curly blond hair, blue eyes and wears glasses. He is very gringo from the outside but a very nice and interesting person :-) He said that he is of Swedish and Southern Italian descent - seems to be a very cool mix ;-) Unfortunately it seemed that Alvaro was not too happy about us bonding and he left after dinner for another CS meeting, not inviting us to join in. We went up to San Blas to the famous gringo haunt "KM 0" and shared a drink and good conversation....
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