Gettin' Stoned.

Having been into town this morning I have to come back in here with missed news.. All confusion here, we were told that we were off at 8:30am, all packed ready to go. At 9am. Cancelled. Oh dear!

Had an easy morning except for the noise. Had a party of twenty five girls in the hotel (14 to 16) and five teachers. Half of them have altitude sickness, the other half were in the garden and all I could hear was:

NO............

NO..............

NO..............

What the hell!

The girls are outside having their daily Karati lessons, movement, NO, movement NO.

Photos to come.

They are off to an ECO village today part of a package to learn Spanish and learn about setting up a 'Free Trade" type of union here. They get out on a private bus. US Dollars!

We went into town as shown on the previous blog.

Went out again things have quietened down. Wander around the back streets and local market. Still no transport anywhere but lots of people. All locals. These people are without doubt very kind and gentle they are friendly to us, ( see later ) we kick about a football with kids in the street and we hear their side of this dispute.

All sorts of problems, pay, hours, etc, but one main one:

The government want to take control of tourism in Cusco, Matu Pichu and so on. Restrict entry, no over flying, limited numbers in the city and on and on. Bring in international hotel chains. VERY unpopular here.

Wander down to our travel company to see what is happening. Apparently they tried to bus tourist out at 5am but found all the roads blocked with massive rocks and when the buses tried to go round they were stoned. Its in the news, in the press. We are told that it would be best not to wander too far and keep out of town tonight as there are a lot of strangers in town, much what we were told earlier.

The city is under seige.

Move over to have coffee and cake. Now all the shops are open but when a demonstration passes the shops etc have to pull down their shutters to show solidarity with the workers (sounds like England in the 70s). The waiters in our bar were not fast enough and a group of some 50 women started to stone the bar. Whizz, in they came. Everybody at the front of the bar ran for it, we were at the back, Shutters came down like lightning, WHOOSH. Everyone was laughing, still that good humour. But really this is no joke.

All goes quiet and we move on to tour some of the highlights.

Went into a cathedral which is built on Inca ruins, as is all the city, stunning, really. The Inca stone work is superb and makes the later Spanish work on top look rough. But the Inca buildings are literally still inside these churches, houses, everywhere, very strange and I have not seen the likes of it in Europe.

A side note here. Uniform is important, there is a statue of a general on every corner, no matter who is in uniform they are imaculate. Right down to the street cleaners. Brilliant blue, creases in their trousers working twenty four hours a day. There is nowhere, back streets alleyways, that has a piece of paper on it. And why, I now know.

In the demo today an individual threw a paper bag down, over went the street cleaner and she really wanged him with her broom!!! Wop wop!!! Ha ha.

The paper was picked up, no argument and no one batted an eyelid.

Beggers, there are a few but nothing like home. Street vendors are only in the main tourist square, there are hundreds, but there are rules, a smile and the word no are always accepted, but for one lad who offered Christine chewing gum, when she said she did not like gum he said 'what you no like gum, crazy woman'. Mind you they are making a killing with the strikers, buns, drinks, whistles, rattels, fresh fruit, home made cake. Everything you need for a good riot!

So had to get that all in otherwise it blurs with time.

It does sound dramatic here but to be honest we as tourist are not the target and they are getting on with it amongst themselves. We do not feel endangered and in many ways it is an adventure on its own, and certainly news worthy.

Speak soon.