Mistura Food & Tapestry Weaving

We went to the private Amani Museum yesterday, which specialises in the Chancay pre-Incan civilisation from north Peru, particularly textiles. There were many beautiful woven textiles, cotton & some alpaca, really well preserved as they were buried in the desert, so no water damage. We saw some exceptionally fine woven fabrics, almost as fine as the > 350 thread woven cotton at the Museo Larco, & some open weave lace -like fabrics. We then travelled into the city centre to the Mistura Food Festival. Each district in Peru was showcasing their regional produce, offering tastes, & products for sale. There were so many potatoes, different types of quinoa & kiwicha (amaranth), pisco, juices, cheeses, cold meats, fruits, coffees .....! There were parades, brass bands, restaurant stalls, traditional foods,rustica foods, a huge bread display, chocolate pavillion, etc etc! It was huge! After that, we went to a gallery with an exhibition of modern art using traditional iconography, & then to another private gallery with a lot of folk art for sale. Today we went out to the poorer part of the city to see Peru's National Treasure & international master tapestry weaver Maximo Laura's home, studio & gallery, which was very interesting. He is a brilliant artist, & has 36 looms making up his designs now. He uses very fine 2 ply alpaca yarn, so many colours, on cotton warps, with so many different techniques, often 6 colours at a time. He walked us through his design, development & execution process, & we had a colour blending demonstration. We then had a delicious Chinese/Peruvian lunch at Madam Tusan, followed by a visit to an up market alpaca shop, & a folk art gallery. So, another quiet night in, repacking bags for our flight to Arequipa tomorrow in the afternoon (our flight time has changed) trying to get all new purchases in with a weight limit of 20 kg! I think some excess baggage charges are coming up!