view from my eyes

   Overall Cusco, was way more touristy than I had ever expected. If you were anywhere near the Plaza de Armas, you’d find camera flashes and foreign languages being spoken left and right. I tried to stay away from the center, just because I am more of a laid back person and hate to be grouped in with typical tourists. Since there are so many of us foreigners around, in which locals have learned equal money.. there are people selling something every corner there is. I think that the children must start at age 4 selling paintings. A few times the young boys said that they’d give me their paintings for free “eres hermosa, para ti es gratis!gratis!” haha .. they are pretty persistant too, but not as bad as the ladies offering massages and pedicures! I think that its interesting how so many of the locals have changed their sources of income because of the tourist boom from Machu Picchu. I always wonder if tourism has a negative or positive affect on a country, I think that I’ve seen both. Sometimes there would be little kids roaming the streets in the middle of the night, begging for change- I heard from a few locals that their parents make them do this in some situations, which is surely disheartening. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the city.

I loved that once I had been there a few weeks, I didn't feel lost anymore. The feeling of walking around a place that was a foreign world, and now you are seeing little kids on the streets that are calling you teacher, and friends you had met the night out before was awesome. As much as I loved traveling around later on during my trip, the sense of having somewhat of a home is always a feeling that is missed at times when traveling. It is really cool that in a way nobody knows you, but than again it is hard having to re-meet new people all the time, and never getting the time to really know anyone beyond the surface. It would have been nice to have more money while I was there, because I wanted to do yoga, and so many more things but had to limit myself because of money. This feeling I think comes from taking so much I can do at home for granted, so it was frustrating not being able to do things, and go places that I wanted to.  

With so many tourist here, follows a type of guy known as "Bricheros" here in Peru. I thought that it was the funnies thing, but soon realized how extreme and real these creepers are. I guess that they pry on all of the women, probably American or European that come to Cusco in search of a fun time. They really take advantage, and try to pull the spiritual card any chance they get. Me, being the gullible person I am totally fell for this a few times. Embarrassing as it is to say, I walked around the city for like an hour with this guy, as he proceeded to rub my forehead with Crystals and all (lol). I think that I like to  hope for the best in people, and when people are telling you how good of an energy you have blah blah, it is hard to not get sucked in when your interested in natural medicine anyways. Some of these guys actually go pretty far with it, and hope the women will bring them back to their country with them. There is actually even a youtube video about it - http://youtu.be/IRk6dvRLngA . that was show to me by a local friend. Cusco is filled with so many awesome little stores with crystals, and jewelry its amazing. I wanted to buy everything possible, and ended up splurging mostly in the craft stores so that I could make my own jewelry and such. 

xx SLW