random photos

We've had lots of positive responses to this blog, so I'm just posting some additional, random photos from Cusco. The area there is so interesting and beautiful it's easy to add more.
I don't have the technique down for these postings, and have limited control, if any, regarding the layout and order of photos. They tend to load backwards, for example.
So the order is pretty random.
Anyway. I added the first photo only because it is a colorful example of the way some of the locals dress up and pose for photos, expecting a tip for the trouble. This fellow had quite the Inca outfit, complete with a sort of ceremonial staff that seems to have a hatchet and be topped with a decorative corn cob. We saw these more than once, but I don't know what all the elements represent. There is a fellow in Cusco, who dresses in a similar costume and is the self-declared guardian of one of a big 12-sided stone, which makes up part of the foundation of a large wall in the city. He charges people money to touch it and offers an explanation. The tourist police put up with him, because they figure he's helping to keep the tourists in line.

The rest of these photos just display some of the other colors of Cusco, ranging from a beautiful park with stones from the former Temple of the Sun complex to more pictures of people and the omnipresent llamas. Actually, it would be more accurate to describe this animal as an alpaca. Llamas, it turns out, are bred to be pack animals and tend to have shorter fur. Alpacas are bread for their wool and are very hairy. Vicunas are smaller than the others, and represent the wild variety of these cameloids.

I added the photo of the woman in the white hat simply because you see many women, old and young, wearing tall hats such as this one, generally white or black.