Cusco

greetings blog readers…

Tim decided to take a trip back to Barranquilla in Colombia; so for now I, Troy, will be your tour guide, and no, it's not because of a lack of comments (thanks to those who did though).

So… Cusco is a truly beautiful city which is crawling with tourists, at times it feels like there are more of them than locals (at least in the centre of town). They come from all parts of the world, and from many different age groups; though the age groups tend to stay in differently priced accommodations, and at night get up to vastly different past times. The hostel we stayed in was renowned for it's all night parties, and the cities clubs never had a night off, except for during election weekend when serving alcohol is banned…

The country had its election on Sunday 10th April, which was made very obvious to Tim and I from the moment we entered the country by the names of candidates being painted in large bright colours on the walls of almost every house near a roadway. It was also interesting to note, while riding, how one town or region would predominate with one candidate then you cross an invisible line and suddenly the name and colours change.

It was great to watch it unfold in Cusco, since the people take it seriously and dressed in their regional and very colourful finery, while they congregated in town around street eateries and carnival attractions. I only took one photo from a balcony of a couple of local women, because they were being hounded by tourists with cameras, and were constantly having to turn and hide whenever they saw one aimed at them (not sure from shyness or irritation (the later I presume)). Of note was how some women were carrying children in their wraps while others were carrying lambs, I never found out why though.

I was shown the system of voting by our good friend Leo, who is currently babysitting Tim's bike. The voting centres are all in schools and it's very similar to the system in Australia apart from the fact that people didn't have to stand in a line for an hour or two to vote! They found their family or village name posted in the central courtyard, then went to a room designated to that group where they put crosses in boxes then had their finger inked.

I am writing this past tense so I can tell you that Alejandro Toledo leads Keiko Fujimura over the other contesters, both were the predominant names painted on houses.

Anyways… I fulfilled my mission though by safely getting Tim's bike into storage on Sunday and thus Monday could continue with the trip. Puno next…
(photos to come when I get card reader)