Little clay birds

Wherever the tourist goes in Peru, she’ll find an ‘Indian Market’, packed with colourful fake textiles, jokey T-shirts (‘The Condor and the Cuys’; a motorcycling ‘Llamaha’ and so on), mass-produced pottery, little clay birds that make whistling noises and the ubiquitous woollens (“maybe alpaca” is the standard warning issued about all the sweaters purporting to be baby alpaca). The people of the Andes have fabulous crafts traditions — intricate and striking weaves, indigenous ceramics, truly fine traditional woollen clothing—but you’re not going to find any of these in the Indian markets. I resisted the lures of the markets, only to fall prey to these owls at Lima duty-free. I had fifty nuevos soles in my pocket and there were these owls — made of gourd, carved, dyed and painted — staring, well, owlishly at me. PEN 46 for mother and child.