We love Cuzco!

We had another great day today, so many interesting things to see here.  Before I start on the day there are a few things I keep forgetting to post.  First, since it is winter here it gets dark at 5:30. It also gets pretty cold (30s-40s we are told).  We have two heavy blankets on our beds but still sleep with socks on.  There is no heat.  Also there is an extreme amount of counterfeit money. Every time you exchange money you have to check it to make sure that it is not fake.  People have been so kind teaching us what to look for. Also, I will be posting pictures but since the internet here is in the lobby I don't have time to download the photos.  At our next stop I should be able to put some up.  Brian bought me a great camera for Christmas with a 12X zoom so it has been fun taking pictures.
I slept for eleven hours last night.  I guess I was tired.  After we got ready we had our regular breakfast of coca tea and bread.  Today we got fancy and added some tangerines and little bananas that we had bought at the neighborhood grocery store.  Then we went to the San Pedro Market. This is a huge indoor market with everything you could imagine.  The produce is amazing. It kills us to not be able to buy the huge grapes, enormous papayas, and other beautiful fruit. Since we have no way to peel the fruit we will wait until we are living in Ayacucho to eat such wonderful things. They had two aisle of juice stations where women in white coats peel the different fruit you want and put it in a blender to make juice for you.  There was a large meat section complete with the smells.  I'll spare you those details and we got out of that section pretty quickly.  We found more sweaters, scarves, gloves, hats, t-shirts.  We have bought some things but don't have much room until we unload books in Ayacucho.  Sugar cane is everywhere as are coconuts.  This would be a vegan heaven if we had a kitchen to prepare food.  We are also in love with the corn with huge kernels and the amazing variety of potatoes.  Today we saw some that looked like white mushrooms.  We ask lots of questions, what things are, where things are, and everyone is so kind.  After the market we went to lunch.  Moyra had vegi lasagna and I had gnocchi stuffed with sweet potatoes.  It was really good but I'm still getting used to eating creamy things.  Tonight my stomach is protesting a bit.  After lunch we went to some Inca ruins, very beautiful and a fun place to take pictures.  The site was once the richest Inca temple with gold everywhere.  After that we stopped at the grocery store and got some food for tomorrow.  We have to catch a taxi at 5:30 in the morning to get to the train station in time to catch the train to Machu Pichu.  It is a three hour train ride which will leave us only about 4 hours to explore but I feel so thankful to have the experience(along with the other 2498 people that will enter tomorrow).   I may not post tomorrow since we leave early and get back late.  On Monday we leave Cusco and fly back to Lima for a quick overnight and then off to Arequipa.  Besos for you all I hope you are enjoying the journey with us!! Feel free to post any questions or just say Hi, including Moyra's people.