Today was dedicated to the plentiful markets of Cusco. Where you can buy anything from sheep heads to mysterious jungle fruit. At the market of San Pedro, where most of Cusco does its grocery shopping, theres an incredible selection of stuff that you can get, nearly anything. Cusco lies very near to the rich jungle, so fresh fruits and vegetables are brought up each morning, things i never even imagined.

Its hard to imagine that there could be an everyday use for so much different produce. One nice thing is that every glass of juice that you drink here is made fresh, within the past few minutes, with fruit grown nearby, its amazing. Everything from orange, to papaya, guava, etc.. The less enticing part of this market was the meat section. Peruvians eat everything when it comes to animals, and its all just sitting there out in the open. Definitely not an americans idea of healthy food service standards. Tounges, stomachs, brains, snouts, chicken feet, and honestly some woman was selling a pile of severed lamb heads, complete with fur.

We also visited some other markets including an Artesan craft market, where one could get any concieveable Cusco craft or souvenier at dirt cheap prices. We then visited the inevitable ´black´ market, containing all manner of goods imported from asia and whatnot. All sorts of bootleg videos, stereos, shoes, clothes.

Lunch was spent with the family of Julio. They have a neat house with a courtyard in the middle and a balcony all around the second floor. He has two kids who speak some english, and a girl staying with them from a country in eastern europe i cant quite put my finger on. But they all speak pretty good english and seem like nice people. Its nice to hang out with people that can kind of explain whats going on, as generaly i have no idea.

This marked my first night going out on the town, with Fernando, Julios son. Wasnt quite what I had expected. I had heard of the great night life of Cusco, lots of bars and clubs. I ended up meeting up with Fernando and a bunch of his friends. The whole night we wandered around and they argued about where was the best place to go or what was expensive or where the best girls were. We ended up going to a shady looking plaza outside, where a bunch of other people were standing around. We each threw in a dollar, and one of the guys brought back a bottle of rum and a bottle of coke. Using some ingenuous method, they managed to mix the two using only a plastic bag, and proceeded to pass around a plastic shot glass. This process lasted about 2 hours out in the cold, and then I decided to head in, as this all didnt seem to be going anywhere. Not as glorious as I had expected, but there was a sort of simple comaradery about the whole thing, I guess. Some part of the culture to understand? I dont know. I enjoy sleeping anyway.