Cusco, Peru

Cusco is this historic capital of the Inca Empire in Peru, near the Sacred Valley (Andes mountain range) and situated at 10,800 feet above sea level. Due to its high altitude, many travelers experience altitude sickness (called Soroche), so what did we do as soon as we landed there?? Drink mate de coca! Yes, coca, as in the leaves they make cocaine from. It's legal in Peru and Bolivia, and pretty much no where else. You put the leaves in hot water and drink it like tea, or you can just chew on the leaves like tobacco. It's not cocaine, and it doesn't have the same affects as cocaine, but it certainly makes you feel great!! It's like drinking a very very strong energizer drink and it alleviates any nausea or dizziness while your body is adjusting to the altitude. It's illegal to bring the leaves back to the US because Customs considers it the "starting point" for cocaine production, however, I bought some leaves that are covered with chocolate. Maybe the dogs won't smell it through the chocolate and my sturdy suitcase? We'll see how that goes... For all of my experienced drug laundering friends, please send me some clever ideas! If not, my welcome home party may be happening in the Newark airport detention facility...

Anyway, at one point during my trip, I was walking around this store looking at clothes, and this man stormed in chanting very loudly in a language I did not understand. He was screaming, running around the store (which had two floors), carrying a pot of smoking ashes, and literally throwing the smoke around the room. There was so much smoke I started coughing violently, and then my cough turned into a nervous laugh as I started to back into a corner because I had no idea what was going on. While I'm staring at the man with the most confused look ever, the woman who owned the store is looking at me like I am the crazy one for being confused. (I am sorry, but someone running into a store and blowing the equivalent of 50 cigarette puffs of flowery-smelling smoke at my face while I'm shopping for clothes is not a normality in my life.) I waited for the smoke to clear and the man to go upstairs and then I inched my way over to the owner. I asked her who he was and she said "un Shaman!" and then explained that he was cleaning the store of bad spirits (which he apparently thought were surrounding me, due to the heavy amounts of smoke he flailed my directions). I waited for him to finish his ritual, and then I bought some beads from him. I figure if I wear those, I might be able to prevent another smoke attack, but I might just revert to attaching a smoke detector to my body so that next time I will at least have time to cover my face.

The churches in the Plaza de Armas of Cusco are beautiful! One is famous for a painting of the Last Supper by Marcos Zapata in which they are eating cuy and drinking chincha morena. Cuy is roasted guinea pig, which is a delicacy in Peru, and chincha morena is a purple corn drink that tastes like bubble gum.