Here is to another day

Cusco just keeps getting better. This morning we all rolled out of bed to be served a complimentary breakfast of eggs, bread, and juice in the common room just down the hall from my room. Sad to here Dr. Brown was feeling side effects of altitude sickness, we had the morning to wonder through the city. I regret not taking out more money in Lima because, the bank fees here are much higher then they were there. We walked to the Plaza de Armes where there was a festival going on that had a parade of a ton young children doing traditional dances in traditional costumes. It was great to see and kind of reminded me of St. Patrick's Day in Augusta. 

After lunch we went to the museums that we hadplanned for the day, the Center of Textile Traditions of Cusco and the Museum of Regional History of Cusco. In the textile museum it was interesting to learn all the different uses and names of the textiles we have been seeing throughout our trip. The yarns used mainly today are synthetic but they also use sheep, llama, and alpaca wools. The traditions of making the different textiles varies from region to region. The shawl that the woman use to carry anything from their child to a sack of potatoes on their back is called a mantas or lliqllas. The museum noted the women also have more vibrant mantas that they would wear only during fiestas. 

I enjoyed our visit to the Museum of Regional History of Cusco. It was located in the home of Garcilaso de la Vega who played a major role in chronicling the history of Cusco. There was an exhibit of Bernardo Bitti, who in 1575 came to Peru and in particular Cusco on an evangelical mission. He brought with him his expertise in art of the Mannerist style. Other notable painters of the same style are Michelangelo and Raphael. The natives of Cusco are mainly Quechuan which did not have a form of writing. Bitti taught the local artist to paint in a similar style (Mannerist) so that they would have a new medium to be able to share their history and beliefs not only verbally or through textiles.  

Another interesting exhibit was on the actions that Jose Gabriel Tupac Amaru lead and the effects of his rebellion against the Spanish. He lead a rebellion that eventually lead to his sentencing to be dismembered by having each of his limbs be tied to a horse. The Spanish also kill all of his family four generations down his family line. It was not until forty years later that his rebellion was successful when Peru finally gained independence. In the woven textiles below you can see Amaru on his horse with a Quechuan flag and another one that shows him being pulled by the four horses.