Cusco and Aguas Calientas, Peru: September 6, 2015 to September 13, 2015
10/20/2020
Travel
September 6, 2015 and September 7, 2015
We started the day’s travels by getting out of the house by 6:50am. I was really awake even after getting less than three hours of sleep. I inadvertently made some woman smile in the bathroom in LAX. She read my shirt, “Without music, life would be a mistake” – Fredrick Nietsche. Our first flight was about eight hours to Lima. While eating before our flight to Cusco, I was watching a woman a bit younger than me talk in Spanish and realized a few things: 1) my comprehension of Spanish is still way better than my speaking ability even after all these years, 2) though I could not understand, she was talking a lot with her hands so I could decipher the gist and 3) throughout the conversation she switched between having her glasses on and off. With them on, she looked younger (they were big and cartoony).
The security check in Peru is awesome—they just put your stuff through, do not check anything, and it literally took two minutes. Best security check to date!
The flight to Cusco was only one-and-a-half hours. Once in Cusco, we took a taxi to catch our train. All the taxi drivers wanted $50. We searched around until we found someone that would drive us for $20. It took us about 35 minutes to get to the train station. While driving, I noticed the “type” of poor and dilapidation here looks, feels, tastes, sounds, smells, and behaves qualitatively different than all the other countries (or states) I have been to. In New Orleans, it was due to being ravaged by a natural disaster; in Croatia it was because it was war stricken and still coming out of it, there was not really any in Denmark, Amsterdam, or Sweden; in Prague-none, and in Germany, due to post-war and lack of West versus East integration. Here in Peru, it almost feels like this is always how it was and will forever be—Asia has its feral cats, Peru has its feral dogs that form packs. The houses, many made from broken bricks, are slapped together with scraps—metal, plastic, tin, wood, trash bags. Adding to this run down look, all advertisements are just painted on the walls of the houses, then painted over again.
Once at the train station, we met a Tibetan teacher from New York. He was interesting for all of never, until he stopped talking to us and engaged in weird (not cultural, just weird) behavior while eating. My travel partner found a way to switch our tickets to the one that just arrived instead of waiting another two hours. The ride was incredible. I saw a lot of falling apart farms amongst nature and just matched the landscape change from sporadic, open agriculture to more highly populated falling apart houses, to soaring mountains with constructs, to finally densely vegetative mountains. Three-and-a-half hours of this. I tried an Incan beer called Cusqueña. It tastes like Heineken. It cost 7 soles ($2). Definitely more comfortable than the planes.
Once we got into the town of Aguas Calientes, it was like a different world. This little city surrounded by these rich green mountains. They look so different from any other mountains I have ever seen. They are not rocky and jagged like the mountains of Wyoming, or the discolored seemingly boring lumps of Death Valley. They are wider, round at the top, non-menacing and create the feeling that they are protecting a secret--perhaps history. Seeing Machu Picchu in the center of the four enormous mountains to the North, South, East, and West.
I have compared many of my travels to that of fantasy, but this place really does seem like something out of a movie. While walking around town square, they have the ancient Incan totems (condor, puma, and snake) everywhere. The Incas believed that these three totems represented the three levels of life experience. The Condor connects us to our spirit or life above and points us towards ultimate freedom or illumination. It also represents the upper world with the affirmation "I love" with the behavior "don’t be lazy." The Puma represents the manifest self. The Puma is the guardian or embodiment of wisdom in daily life. It is the totem of the current world with the affirmation "I work" and the behavior "don’t steal." The Snake represents our inner self and the ability to transmute and transform through reflection and self awareness. The Snake also represents the underworld with the affirmation "I live" and the behavior "don’t lie."
I did not know the following until after my visit to Machu Picchu: These three totems were also seen in the city itself. Machu Picchu, the citadel, is bounded by four mountains roughly corresponding to the four cardinal directions of the Chakana. In the saddle between the North-South facing mountains is the center of the town where most of the religious practice and rituals took place. This is condor. The Urubamba River far below majestically winds around the foot of the East-West facing mountains in a U-shape, separating them from the North-South and providing the nourishing waters, or Kundalini, of life. This was the snake. The people who lived at Machu Picchu, they were a spiritual society and were devoted to practicing love, self-knowledge, and work in service to and fulfillment of their beliefs. This was the puma.
Anyway, I digress. While walking the square, I saw a flower I thought I recognized that scopolamine (aka devil's breath) is made from. One of the deadliest drugs in South America. It makes one incredibly suggestible, lose will power, hallucinate, and a zombie. One is trapped within one’s own body. A bit later, I started exploring some of the local kiosks and quickly learned that these people really like to barter. As soon as they saw us walking away, they immediately lowered the price. Pretending to not be interested worked well for me. While shopping, the owner's little girl, whom was probably about a year and a half, named SamE (Sam-E), played with my bracelets, toes, and playfully pushed me. Even in different countries kids are attracted to me.
Geez my legs got destroyed by mosquitoes. So, they are the size of gnats unlike the ones in the states and make you bleed like you have been stabbed by a needle. I currently have 80-ish bites on my legs alone and about ten on my arms. Because of all the toxins, my legs and ankles swelled to twice their normal size, which makes hiking especially painful. Fuckers.
In this town, the parents work in the market that is filled with at least 50 different tent-like stations all selling touristy and native goods. The women are mainly working in these kiosks while the men are doing construction, hard labor, or in the restaurants. At night, people gather in the square to watch things, although tonight it was soccer, on a giant projector screen while the kids and dogs run around everywhere playing. They are really into soccer. From about 6pm-12am they played half field soccer that is next to our hotel. We heard whistles and cheering nonstop. I also noticed that a lot of the police are women. The restaurants and stores in the streets have their workers outside their doors trying to get people to come in. I wonder if they get tired of people telling them “No thank you.”
I ate at Chaska Restaurant. I had a Hawaiian sangria and alpaca a la parrilla. So good!
September 8, 2016
The bus ride to Machu Picchu was exquisite. The clouds formed around the mountain tops differently at 7am. They slink from the top down to the bottom, and then curled back up in a spiral, kind of serpentine, like a totem.
Today, we hiked Machu Picchu mountain, all 10,111 feet of it. We had to sign in and out. The guy said it takes three hours total – BULL SHIT!! Took us six—hardest hike ever (so far) and I thought I was in good shape. Clearly delusional. This kicked my ass in part because of my injured right leg. I had to go up each step by pushing off my left leg, which was the base leg, step up with my right leg, and recover with the left, then do it all again slowly. The heat and altitude did not bother or effect me, but expending more energy to be slow, careful, and lift my right leg from the hip rather than from the knee was tiring. That and 1) each step was 12-15 inches high and just uneven rock steps, and 2) the step portions were about 20-30 steps each set and were going straight up. There were switch backs that led to resting spots, but the bulk were stairs going straight up the mountain. My left quad was so sore, holy God.
Talking to people from around the world on the hike up was fun. I met this one guy, Robert Vesleño from Toronto, Canada and talked to him at different points up the trail. The last time we spoke was when he was about five minutes away from the top and I was headed back down. He asked if I could write in his book called, “What is Love” and describe what my interpretation of love is. Jumping at any chance I get to be a poet or even moderately philosophical, I gladly and enthusiastically said yes. I asked if he was going to publish it and if so, will he translate it (people wrote in their native languages) and he said yes, though maybe not because “love is supposed to be a universal language.” While writing my response, he asked if he could take a picture of me writing in his book. Duh! I obliged. I told him I would like to stay in touch and get his book if he ever publishes it. His contact is robert@vesleno.com and whatislovejournal.com.
At the one-and-a-half hour mark of my journey, I kept asking people in about twenty minute intervals (for the next one-and-a-half hours might I add) as they were coming down the mountain how much longer until the top. They all said the same thing, 20-30 minutes—which confirmed my belief that people suck at predicting time. Once I was closer to the top, people kept saying ten minutes for the next hour. I finally stopped asking and made it to the top without my travel partner. We parted ways because he thought he was slowing me down and figured he would get up there eventually. Once at the top I felt so triumphant. It was absolutely breathtaking. At the top was a rainbow flag (same as the LGBT flag in the states) and I asked someone what it meant. Apparently it is Cusco’s national flag. This then led me to thinking as to whether the LGBT community of the states knows it is Cusco’s flag, if Cusco knows the LGBT of the U.S. use it as their flag/symbol or if they care, or if the U.S. does what it always does and just takes stuff and assumes no consequence. To follow up on this curiosity, I asked two gay friends of mine, one female and one male, and they both had zero clue about the flag other than it symbolizes diversity.
After we got down the mountain we were so hungry and sore. We inhaled some food from the snack bar, then got back on the bus and headed thirty minutes back to Aguas Calientas. Once we got back to the hotel, we showered, rested, and went to dinner at Hatun Runa Grill. We sat on the third floor overlooking the town square and people watching a soccer game on the projector screen. I had stewed guinea pig. When they brought it out, it looked like friend chicken. It still had the paws attached as well as the jaws and teeth. It kind of tasted like dark chicken meat with a hint of something else I couldn’t place other than labeling it as guinea pig taste. It was good, but a pain to get meat our from between the tiny bones. Sometimes I had to pick small bones out of my mouth like one sometimes does with fish. After dinner, we went to watch the soccer game going on by our hotel (co-ed teams, they love this sport). Outside the gates women were making and selling food they made. Pretty cool atmosphere.
September 9, 2015
This morning I got crème crepes with fruit. So good! Today, we returned to Machu Picchu around 12pm to actually explore the ancient Inca citadel. There are very few places I have been thus far that have lived up to the hype (the most up to date exception being the falls at Plitvice in Croatia) like Machu Picchu has. As soon as you go through the ticketing gate, you felt like you were going to witness something life-changing or uncover a secret that no one else should be privileged to receive. Stepping out of the gates at 8am the clouds float low, hiding the mountain peaks and adding to the mystery of the ancient world. The mountains surrounding the city did not look like they were masses that rose up; rather, they look like everything around them sunk. The clouds looked like they were flirting with the tops as they wound between the mountains, caressing their sides with their wisps. It was almost as if I was watching a ballet, where the ballerina, the clouds, danced around their supporting cast, the mountains.
Above this citadel to the west lies Wayna Picchu Mountain where the high priest, the city’s virgins, and a select few would reside. Walking through the condensed labyrinth not only made me appreciate signs and muscle memory to aid gaining one's bearings, but also appreciate the workmanship of the structure. I frequently ran my hand along the wall as I walked past as if my touch would awaken something within me or coax the city into telling me “the true history.”
I was fixated on several different focal points; the tree in the middle of the city as the oldest and tallest sentry was one of them. Other tourists inadvertently ruining my shot whereby their presence was irritating me, not because I did not think that they had a right to explore just as much as I did, but because I thought the presence of modern man was bastardizing the shot, rather than passing the memory along through oral or written tradition. Hypocrisy aside, I wanted my pure shots. So I waited. A lot.
A second focal point—we ventured onto the west side of the city where we learned how to do panoramic shots on our phones—pretty awesome technological discovery in our own right. Throughout the city there were llamas and alpacas with their young grazing on ground level as well as significantly elevated steps overlooking a several thousand foot drop.
A third focal point was a part of the city’s interior that did bother me. There was a wall where the stone did not share the same coloration as its neighbors, did not have the same mortar, was a different kind of rock, and the rocks were shaped differently (i.e., their shape were inconsistent with the shapes of the rocks used throughout the rest of the citadel). Because of the aforementioned, I could only assume this wall was either newer or manufactured by preservationists for some reason.
After this, we looked at Wayna Picchu Mountain from afar. Apparently the hike up this mountain leads to another city, so a city above Machu Picchu. The hike up this mountain is even more challenging than the one up Machu Picchu Mountain itself. We rested at this mountain’s gates and began researching it.
Because we were both tired and sore tonight, we opted for dinner that was just down from the hotel called Kinwa Restaurant. It was really fancy and we were the only ones there. I got this deliciously flavored vegetable soup with rice, carrots, scallions, cucumber, and seasoning. I could easily eat this for days. I also got penne with vegetables, also very good. It was not drenched in the white sauce, but almost as if it was dipped then strained from the sauce. For dessert, because it was part of a three course meal package, I got chocolate crepes. Sadly, they tasted like dry bread with chocolate sauce drizzled on them, so basically just pancakes. Both of our three course meals and a pitcher of sangria was only $50 USD.
Cusco, Peru
September 10, 2015
We got breakfast in town square. I got a ham and cheese crepe (not good, the cheese was un-melted cubes) and two espresso vanilla shakes—now, these, these were delightful. After our late breakfast, we went back to the hotel to pack up laundry before checking out. The guy at the front desk said he would call the laundry guy (took ten minutes), then we said we would be in the room call us when he is here. Sixty minutes later we do not hear from the front desk so my travel partner went down stairs and the guy at the front desk said the laundry guy would be there soon and he would bring the laundry up. Thirty minutes later, we pack up and head to the train station which was literally a three minute walk from our hotel.
We are currently on the four hour train ride back to Cusco. I got a few pictures of some snow on the mountains that was not there when we were first traveling to Aguas Calientes. Renzo, who was our taxi driver when we first arrived in Cusco (i.e., needed to get from the airport to the train station), met us again and drove us to our hotel in Cusco. He took a picture of our return ticket to drive us back to the airport for our return flight. We will see how this goes when the time comes. About an hour before the train was at its destination, there was a performance whereby a colorful jester puma danced around the car playing with passengers as other crew members put on a fashion show of local attire to buy. Pretty, but not paying $100 for it. We got to our hotel at 7pm—sooo fancy. It is called the Sonesta Hotel Cusco.
Cusco looks ghetto as hell at night. It broke my heart to see this type of poverty. I have never seen this type of poverty first hand. It becomes personal when you see it and are not protected by the distance awarded by a television screen. There were a lot of people in torn clothing. More interesting than the human social structure, was the canine social structure. All the dogs, absolutely all of them, were not worried about fighting each other for space, food, shelter, etc. I suppose part of this could have been because they were feral, they reestablished a pack mentality. However, even within a pack there is a hierarchy and occasional discord. Every breed of every size was not fighting with any neighboring dog. These “packs” were huge, at least 30 or more strong. Even though dog and man alike were struggling, neither beast attacked the other. Rather, it was as if there was a mutual understanding and support system. Both groupings relied on the other and created symbiotic relationships. Many of the dogs followed humans to makeshift shelters that were nothing more than cardboard box lean-tos, some put together with various types of tape, rope, zip ties, etc. This level of poverty appeared to vanish, almost be completely erased, once we go to the hotel in Cusco proper. It was a bit bazaar. Those people and their animals stuck with me.
September 11, 2016
We talked to the front desk and they told us the best way to see the city was to buy a general ticket (130 soles = $40 USD) and get a taxi driver to drive us and wait for us at each site (120 soles for both my travel partner and I = $37 USD). So, we did. Our driver's name was Frank. He took us to the four Incan cities: 1) Saqsayhuaman, 2) Q’enqo, 3) Pukapukara, and 4) Tambomachay.
The architecture of Saqsayhuaman was unlike anything I have ever seen and a fairly big departure from Machu Picchu, The stones used were not only enormous and kind of bulbous, but precisely cut as if it were a jigsaw. Most stones were angular, but many had weird cuts to accommodate other weirdly shaped stones. At this point, even though this was the first city we saw, it was clear the level of sophistication and ingenuity of the Inca—very adaptable and constructed their buildings: a) from what was immediately provided in the environment, b) strategically positioned themselves, using the natural lay of the land to dictate protection (they built the military fortress near or against cliffs, making it hard for attackers to both get up the steep terrain and also scale the walls), c) living quarters were more centrally located and also slightly higher because right below there are variants of terrace (not here though).
At Q’enqo, the architecture evolved again and was even more precise-straight cut lines, no gaps between rocks. That being said, this was a sanctuary where they sacrificed llamas only, not humans. We walked into a cave and saw an alter where their sacrifices occurred.
Before we went to the next city, Frank drove us to Textil Sulca, a family owned manufacturer of tapestries, replicas of ancient Incan tapestries, modern tapestries that use modern materials and colors (bright), and traditional tapestries that use the natural dyes from the land (rocks, plants, parasites, etc.). After the woman explained all the different tapestries, the weaving and dying process, and the hours that went into certain pieces, I watched a woman sitting on the ground with her loom. I took her picture and she looked at me with curiosity. The woman then told me not only did each picture on the textiles have meaning, the type of yarn had meaning, and loose strands (i.e., hanging from wall) had meaning based on how many times a knot wrapped around on itself (e.g., a knot made of four wrap arounds symbolize the number four). Additionally, the woman discussed how her family (and the Inca’s) embroidered.
Next, Frank took us to the third city, Pukapukara. The name means “the red fortress.” It was more military architecture, however, the “here and there” placement of rocks suggest that perhaps it was made in a hurry because it lacked the same precision as the other structures we’ve seen thus far. The rocks were not even close to the size of the first site and still cut well enough to fit together well, but comparatively speaking, sloppy. Like Saqsayhuaman, it was positioned on a cliff, using the terrain’s natural geography to protect them.
The last city we visited was Tambomachay. It is not exactly known as to what the purpose of this place is/was. It is speculated that it was a military outpost, a spa for the political elite, or both. When we first saw it, it appeared to be a tomb—precise, straight, clean lines with laser precision (this is what composed doorways), while walls were jig puzzle-like. The two styles juxtaposed one another, precision and chaos. The entrance to the site was way different than the others. Firstly, on either side of the rubble stone path were these trees; oh my god, these trees looked like they were twisted by the history of the Inca—the wars, daily living, winds, betrayal, changes of government, etc. They were almost a mahogany color with black knots in them. As I was taking pictures of the trees, a Peruvian woman dressed in traditional attire was sitting with her llama and invited me to pet it and take a picture. I said ok and then she stuck out her hand and wanted un soles. Well played, well played. I gave her the three I had in my pocket (about 33 cents).
After this, Frank took us to a church that overlooked the city. I took a pretty epic black and white photo contrasting the cross against the bell tower and the beautiful clouds. These clouds are the whitest and fluffiest I have ever seen. I wonder if it is because there is no pollution or because of all the different combinations of warm and cold air that makes them form differently? Frank then took us to the Inca Museum. We were not supposed to take pictures—oops, only a few. The coolest of which were of the skulls. The Incas medically experimented on people that they thought had an illness. They drilled holes all over, back of the head, sides, and top. But, the COOLEST were the elongated skulls. Frank next drove us to Plaza de Armas to explore the square and the baroque cathedral. Like everywhere else, a lot of people were selling their goods (mostly artists selling their paintings). I had an interesting encounter with and English-German and his English-Asian wife (they were both from Britain). The guy, Mony, asked if I could take his and his wife’s picture with the square to their back and in front of the fountain. I smiled, said sure, and asked if they wanted me to take the pictures any particular way. They said, “no, be creative.” Once I returned the camera to Mony, he said, “Thank you so much! When we asked you to take our picture you were so nice and smiled and were so open! You are the nicest American I have ever met!” I thanked them and laughed and then they offered to take my picture in front of the fountain. He’s like “No, seriously.” I responded and said “personally, I think most Americans are douche bags. I try to be nice to everyone and smile and continued that his perception of me may be because of the fact I’ve traveled a lot so my world view is way different than most Americans. We all laughed some more and I we wished each other safe travels. I also said to them, “hopefully I am not the only nice American you will ever meet.”
Once we got back to the hotel, we were dead. Frank suggested to us that we try to find some local music and dancing at the Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo. We could not find music, but we waited in line for an hour for the dancing then sat for another 30-40 minutes for it to start. It was not what I was expecting. Firstly, they said all the instruments are native, yet there was a violin, um? Secondly, the outfits seemed like modern traditional. Thirdly, the women’s voices were high pitched squeals. No graffiti really other than tagging like in the states. I found one mural.
September 12, 2015
Today, we venture to explore the Sacred Valley, which includes: 1) Pisaq, 2) Ollantaytambo (Temple of the Sun), and 3) Chinchero. Before we started our intended journey, Frank took us to an animal sanctuary. The guide told us about all the different animals that they house there. There are three types of hooved animals that are related to camels: one I forgot, alpacas, and llamas. The one that I cannot remember are super aggressive as adults, but while they are young, they’re nice. We learned that Peruvians, ancient and modern, do not eat llamas because they carry a parasite and therefore only eat alpacas. We then walked over to the macaws, a red female and a blue male. Inside this enclosure was a hawk that was being rehabbed because it broke its wing. We then walked over to the cat enclosure where we first saw a severely endangered Andean cat. The next enclosure over was where the puma family lived (male, female, and a female kitten). The male and female were sleeping together in a corner. I took a picture, but you could only see the face of one. It looked male so I assumed it was male because the face was rounder and fuller. I asked the guide and he confirmed that it was the male. The next enclosure over housed the condors. As soon as we walked in, the adult male had his wings outstretched and sort of concave as if he were trying to warm himself or dry his wings. His wingspan was easily six feet. He looked so royal. The guide was telling us that the condors are endangered in this area because there’s a misperception in the area that they are birds of prey rather than scavengers. We then went to look at the guinea pigs and examples of local plants, berries, and rocks that the Inca used to dye their fabrics. It was here that the guide told (and showed) us about a parasite that grows on the cactus, and when crushed, it makes a red dye, which the Incan used for their fabrics. To create different shades of red, the Incans would add lemon to the mix.
When we left the sanctuary, Frank took us to a lookout that overlooked all of the Sacred Valley. Pretty spectacular. Of course there were people selling their goods. My travel partner bought a mini chess set where it was the Inca versus the Spaniards-hilarious. After we took pictures Frank took us to another lookout that had ancient Incan agricultural terraces carved into the mountain above the city. He showed us that the Incas not only made the terraces, but made it look like a condor! (one of their totems). He knew that we had gone to Machu Picchu so he got his book and showed us that different parts of Machu Picchu look like a puma (another one of their totems), an alligator, and a bear. When I saw this, I was super excited to check my pictures and see if any of them captured these totems. (I got the alligator!)
Next we went to Pisaq, the first of three locations in the Sacred Valley. The first set of ruins at this location was a military post. Staying true to form, it was on a cliff and hard to get to. If you walk up the road and look to the left, you see this expansive area filled with terraces for agriculture. Above the terraces, more inland above the military lookout, was a residential area and cemetery. There was a doorway that I stopped to take a picture in and noticed that inside this doorway, the rocks felt cold and it was at east 10-15 degrees cooler than the surrounding air. As we continued our hike to the residential area I noticed cutouts in the adjacent mountain face and I only assumed that the Inca probably used this as additional storage units based on the size of the holes. This was another example of how the Inca utilized the natural geography of an area and adapted rather than trying to impose their will upon an area. While looking across the valley, I noticed yet another adjacent mountain, whereby a cluster of trees seemed to take on the appearance of a wolf or coyote howling. I was wondering if I was seeing this because it really looked like it, or because I was primed after Frank showed us the terrace-condor. With that in mind, I was wondering if this was a natural formation or if like everything else the Inca did, was purposeful.
Our next stop was Ollantaytambo, where there was the Temple of the Sun. Structure wise and based on pure size alone, this was the most impressive site that was part of the Sacred Valley. This was a holy site erected for the Sun God and overshadowed the city below. This temple was carved into the mountain at an angle. Similar to all the other sites we visited, there were additional residential areas carved into adjacent mountain faces. While climbing to the top of the temple, We had to be careful not to get blown off the top of the mountain because winds were blowing 30-40 miles per hour. Design wise, this structure was a combination of massive rocks cut precisely straight and stacked without any gapes between stones and a jigsaw-like style. It was also consistent with all the other structures-using the terrain to the advantage. The high mountain sides protected the structure and some of the walls of the structure were cliffs to prevent attacks and used as lookouts while the city was central and protected.
The last site we visited that was part of the Sacred Valley was Chinchero. Out of all the places we visited, this place was the most stylistically different and actually weird because it was so repurposed. Its base was Incan terracing and the Spanish colonial structures were built literally on top. It was an interesting juxtaposition of old and new and also symbolized the power dynamic of the time. The Spanish were literally “above” the Inca and were trying to quash their culture entirely.
In front of the church was a wide open field that eventually drops off into the valley below. I got some pretty epic pictures everywhere I went; however, I think some of the best black and white ones were from Chinchero. I got these amazing shots of a cross and the shadow it cast, and the Cusco flag flying above the cross. The other epic shot was of four Peruvian flags whose poles made a tee-pee shape, part of the colonial building in the background, and the sun glaring through, which is obviously muted when in black and white. After this trip, I am seriously considering getting many of my pictures on metal and selling them. I think I really have a shot-I would not quit my day job, but it would be a bit of extra cash here and there.
September 13, 2015
We had a really low key day today. We went to the Museo de Arte Precolombio. For being “primitive” art, (mostly pottery, plates, cups, etc.) the craftsmanship was unparalleled. There were some pieces that were anthropomorphic where there was an animal head and human body rather than the animal having human-like qualities. Also, many pieces were miniatures-the belief here being that it takes more skill and training to create the amount of detail in a miniature than in full form. Aside from this being fascinating in its own right, what I found equally if not more interesting, Was that Picasso was influenced by the “primitive form of cubism.” There were two pots that had cube parts on them. After the museum, we got lunch at Papillon in the Plaza de Armas. We sat on the balcony overlooking the square. We shared a pitcher of sangria and both got grilled alpaca wrapped in bacon and with ratatouille. We sat there for hours talking and watching the square.
