October 23, 2005
Day 25
I wanted to see more of the sites that my ticket I bought yesterday covered, and according to my guidebook, the main cathedral in town was one of them. When I got to the cathedral, I saw the sign that said that it wasn't covered by the ticket anymore and that I'd have to pay $5 to walk through it. So not only did I have to pay for the main tourism ticket, but it doesn't even cover some of the best sites in the city. Still, I did want to see the cathedral, and I was already there, so I bought the ticket.
The inside of the cathedral was really nice. Of course, it took over 100 years to build, so they had plenty of time to make sure they got the job done right. It was filled with paintings that combined European and Inca traditions. One such example was the painting of the Last Supper in which a guinea pig was the main course. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited, so I don't have any pictures to show you.
After checking out the main cathedral, I realized that the ticket I bought also included a visit to a religious museum and another church. They both also included many examples of artwork that combined the colonial and Andean traditions. The most impressive part to me was the gigantic wood carving that one man supposedly worked on for four years straight.
Once I had visited all of the items on today's ticket, I walked passed some Inca walls and had lunch with some people from my hostel. Rafting came up in the discussion, and we will probably go in the next few days, before my Inca Trail trek begins.
At night, my hostel had a Sunday roast, which is a tradition in England and Australia. I had a huge helping of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. I think it was the first time since I left that I had eaten food that I was familiar with before the trip. The meal made me sleepy, so I played cards with some people and went to bed early.
I'll have to mention the last supper painting to my soc. class. We were just talking yesterday about blending relgions together. My 4/5 got into a 5 minute tangent about your trip. They couldn't believe how you could afford to quit your job. I told them about how it's really not that rare and all the people you've met. Hope the movie was good.