Cusco is on strike today, only bicycles are wobbling on the cobbles outside the cafe window and it's eerily quiet everywhere.
The protest has its roots in a perceived injustice regarding the exportation of natural gas from the jungle near Cusco.
Many people in Cusco believe that the pipeline should serve the local area first.
Who will pay the best price?
The answer is not the consumers of Cusco, more likely the peoples of Mexico or the east coast of the USA. That is without the cost of installing the necessary infrastructure here because there is no piped gas at all in Cusco.
Miriam called this morning to say that her mother had been taken ill. She had two teeth taken out yesterday but suffered a hemorrhage and is now unconscious. Miriam is at the hospital and we are all hoping for the best.
We also spoke to Lan Peru and the good news is that our flight to Lima is confirmed for 11am on Saturday.
Now we have to get ourselves organised to go.
We've just this minute had a call from Miriam to say that her Mum is much better, it seems that she had a bad reaction to the painkillers.
The trouble here is that you never know where the next fatal medical error is coming from.
Gary called in for breakfast this morning after a marathon drinking session which ended at 5am.
Another load of riot police have just gone past the cafe window loaded with tear gas and shields so it looks like everything is going according to plan in the Plaza de Armas.
Typically though, the strike only appears to have lasted a few hours with taxi's and combi's streaming past the window again.
Many of the taxi drivers stay off the road during a strike not because of their support but in fear of reprisals. It is not uncommon for bricks and rocks to smash the windscreens of scab drivers or for used engine oil to be chucked at them.
I elected myself washer up and waiter in Miriam's absence as Ali and Valerio prepared the food.
Miriam returned this evening and her Mum is much better so my stint with the sponge and washing up paste was very short lived.