Seen that my “intellectual” colleagues loved (not!) the colossal monuments visited the day before, they convinced me to have an easy day and go explore the local handicrafts market. So there we went, to visit the Mercado de Artesanía (the general handicrafts market) in Cuzco, where all kind of traditional goods can be found. Its stalls are in what used to be the old town jail. Right there we found (and purchased of course, after all it was three women set loose to shop!) all sorts of handicraft and handmade products. One of the charms of this market is that sellers still wear traditional garments. I found a very peculiar item. I had never seem anything like that in my country. It was an expensive but beautifully worked little piece made with young wanako skin (a wanako is an hybrid born from a llama and a vicuna, two Andean camelids). It had an allegory of some "boleadoras" (an inka war weapon). It was a foot length key ring with two loops, one to be fixed to the waist (has some kind of a button to open it) at one end, and a blind loop to the other end.
We bought this and that and whatnot, and on returning to the lodge at 10 pm with more bags than we were able to carry without looking awckward, we were a very evocative metaphor of an Ekeko, an Andean fortune bearer god that is depicted in art as a little statue of a man that wears ethnical clothes and that carries bags and baskets with grain and food.
~December 1, 2006~
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