December 2011...important happenings

My new tattoo.

Antonio working on my tattoo

During the process

Well, the most exciting thing this week was getting a tattoo. I have talked about getting one for many years and last week we met a friend whose boyfriend is a tattoo artist...Antonio. I always said that if I did not get one by my 80th birthday that I would do it on that day but I got to thinking that I just turned 65 and why not do it now and enjoy 15 years of my tattoo rather than waiting. My biggest fear before was that it would hurt while doing it but I was told that the pain would not be too bad (in fact was virtually pain free) and so I went ahead and made an appointment. I worked on my design and together with Antonio, planned it. My spanish teacher was also encouraging as he has several tattoos and he reminded me that I could choose my music for the event and to enjoy it. I asked for Joan Baez and they played special songs for me, including "Susan takes you down to the banks by the river" - one of my favorites. Richard came with me as well as a new 20 year old friend named Tess from Holland. It was so easy and I have no problems. It is healing well and the purple in the flower will show better in a few days - right now it is a dark purple but will get lighter.

New earrings that I made. 

The rest of this week was uneventful after my tattoo. I have been working on jewelry - I brought some beads with me and a few stones. I finished these earrings and am working on some pendants for necklaces. I have made a new Peruvian friend in a local bead store and tomorrow I am going to show her how to make this type of jewelry (beading around a stone) and she is going to show me one of her techniques. For me it will also be a great Spanish lesson as she does not speak any English.

Today we went to Chinchero which is a town about one hour from here in the Sacred Valley that has a large Sunday Market. We bought a few artisan objects and went to a studio where a cooperative of women weave and we were shown the process of dyeing yarn and weaving. Here are many pictures of the market.

Used for dying yarns

Check out my necklace - made by this man

examples of some of the beautiful woven
 fabric made into bags.

Speaking Quecha to each other but
Spanish to us.

little dolls

Amigas

color everywhere

Now we are winding down our time in Cusco as we have just a bit over one more week here. It has been one of our favorite spots and we really feel like we know the town, the culture and the people. Luckily we have made a few Peruvian friends as well as other foreigners which always make the travel experience even better. We are looking forward to our last several weeks of traveling to other parts of Peru before returning to Mexico in early January.