Taking the Kids To Peru: Day 5 Shopping the Markets and Lovin’ the Llamas!

Day 5 of my family adventure: This could very well be my kids’ favorite day in Peru

We left our home at Sol Y Luna to venture to our next hotel in Cuzco. The way our tour group, Adventures by Disney, broke up the all of the drive time worked really well.

Our first stop along the way: Pisca Market. To make shopping seem fun to kids, the Disney tour guides gave everyone 10 soles to spend… but you had to buy a gift for a white elephant exchange at our group’s last dinner together. Creative and fun idea!

The kids really took pride in picking a gift among the traditional chotchkies you’d find in Peru – hats and scarves made from alpaca, dolls, beaded jewelry, etc. The prices are so cheap  – the dollar goes far. It is not hard to bargain here, by the way.

The kids all made friends .. the young Peruvian girls dressed in traditional garb charge you to take a photo with them and their animals.  Even though you know it is a more tourist trap than National Geographic moment, you can’t resist, and want to give them something because frankly, there are many poor people in that country.

My youngest was particularly drawn to the dogs in Peru… I’ve never seen anything like it, but all the dogs roam freely on the streets. They are not kept in a yard at home…. they are not on leashes. Sometimes they seem so busy running through the cities, it is as if they are late to a very important meeting. My son found every dog and had to pet it. The language of dog lovers is the same everywhere.

Awana Kancha Llama Farm

From the market, we headed to Awana Kancha – another place I can’t imagine learning about without the sage guidance of a good tour group. At this point, we were all impressed with how easy it was to be part of a tour – you are able to experience the present better because as parents we weren’ t worrying about where our next meal would be, how we would get to our next location, or where we could buy a bottle of water.

Awana Kancha is an exotic animal farm of sorts -

With Suuth American “camels” to with which to interact!

My kids loved feeding the llamas and alpacas -

Some were aggressive and chased my six year old. They all had a great time.

Part of this living museum is that visitors also learn about how the animals’ soft wool is used to make beautiful woven textiles.  Then the next thing you know you are whisked from a dusty, dirty grass patch with alpaca roaming, into a marble-floored, air conditioned indoor mall selling all sorts of very nice Peruvian sweaters and souvenirs. It felt totally out of place, but was some of the best shopping we’d had – at a llama farm! It is so exclusive, we weren’t even allowed to photograph it…

After fraternizing with our furry friends, we finally reached our destination: Cuzco, a city of about 350,000 that disarms one with it’s unexpected charm.

Cuzco, Peru

Cobblestone streets… Beyond gorgeous churches…And all very clean.

There are 300 Catholic churches in this small town – these churches weren’t like the ones you see in Europe by the way – in general they were more intimate, but equally ornate, with alters of carved gold detail.

Cuzco is an Incan city, and was once headquarters to the Incan Empire.. and our hotel was once the home of one of the Spanish Conquistadors.

The Libertador is a regal hotel, and you can see the Spanish influence in the architecture. It is walking distance to the main square which is great with kids.

Even though it is an ultra elegant hotel, the staff was uber-friendly to children. Some of the nicest staff I have encountered in all my travels. The only bummer was no internet service in the rooms, only the public areas. At this point I had been offline for about a week, and needed to check on some things back at the ranch.

That night we ate a super gourmet meal at a restaurant – Limo. Because Cuzco is of high altitude, many people were feeling the effects – even after being in Machu Picchu. It can hit pretty suddenly so be prepared.

It didn’t stop us from walking back to our hotel from dinner – with the lights on the nearby hillside sparkling as our guide.

Lima, Peru

Tomorrow: The bustling cities of Peru.

Share This Post