Cusco and the Sacred Valley: Part 1

We've arrived in Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire and a UNESCO world heritage site. We rented an apartment to serve as a base from Sunday through Friday to explore this region of Peru. The apartment is fantastic - we highly recommend using websites like airbnb or vrbo while traveling abroad.  Our apartment has two bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a washer and dryer, and it even comes with a local cell phone. Also, there is a woman, Jackie, who comes and makes us breakfast every morning. There's way more space and it's cheaper per night than a hotel.

When we arrived Jackie made us some coca tea, which is supposed to help with altitude sickness. Cusco is over 11,000 feet above sea level, so some travelers get "mountain sickness."  Paul and David brought some altitude sickness medicine from the States, Chris and Stephanie decided to wing it.  No one got sick from the altitude, but we took it easy the first day or so.

Coca Leaf Tea in our apartment

After settling in, we decided to take a walk through town. We walked up to the main plaza (Plaza de Armas) and wandered around the city center. Cusco is a very cute city. It reminds us of a Spanish city; it's very different from Lima. There are a lot of great sweeping views to the surrounding mountains (at least when it's not raining). We visited the chocolate "museum" and a museum about medicinal plants of the region. After walking around some more, we ate a late lunch at a restaurant called Trujillo, then went back to the apartment to rest up for the next day.

Qorikancha & Iglesia Santo Domingo

Look, Mom!  David and Christina are an ice cream here!

Lots of cute courtyards in Cusco

The Museo de Plantas Sagradas, Magicas y Medicinales has an exhibit about Coca Cola!

Black quinoa

Every street vendor could spot Christina from a mile away...

Whee!!! Plaza de Armas!

Inca statue in Plaza de Armas

Paul enjoying a beer

On Monday, we had a guided excursion that took us to two of the historic Inca sites in the sacred valley, and to an animal rescue center and a local market. Our guide, Fabricio, was awesome. He was very knowledgeable and spoke excellent English. The Sacred Valley is beautiful. It's a narrow strip of green following the Rio Urubamba, with huge mountains rising on both sides. Clouds and fog made the view even more dramatic.

Cusco from above

Our visit to the Cochahuasi animal rescue center was interesting. We saw a lot of unique Peruvian species, including Andean condors, pumas, and vicuña. The center cares for animals that couldn't survive in the wild due to injuries or being born in captivity.

Macaw at the rescue center

David feeding a Llama

Andean Condor.

Making tapestries by hand from alpaca wool

Our first view of the Sacred Valley.  Beautiful!

The first Inca site we visited was Pisac. It's a hilltop fortress with impressive agricultural terraces cascading down the mountain. It was a strategic site that guarded a pass leading to the Amazon jungle on the other side of the mountain. There's also several thousand tombs, all of which were raided long ago. We also visited the adjacent colonial town of Pisac, which had a large market... plenty of shopping opportunities for Christina and Stephanie!

Inca agricultural terraces at Pisac

Fabricio explaining an Inca bath at Pisac

Enjoying an Empanada in the town of Pisac

We drove about an hour to the town of Urubamba, where we stopped for lunch at Muña restuarant. Muña has its own greenhouses and prepared all of its dishes from local  ingredients.  Lunch was buffet style and included a variety of vegetables, meats, potatoes, bread and desserts.  Guinea pig (cuy) and alpaca were both on the menu, and David, Paul and Christina all tried them.  The cuy wasn't great, but the alpaca just tasted like beef.

Peruvian buffet lunch.  The green stuff is cuy (guinea pig). 

Our final stop of the day was the town and Inca site of Ollantaytambo. It's been continuously inhabited since the 13th century. There are terraces and some giant stone blocks on top that formed the Inca fortress. The site was never finished because the Spanish conquered the city before the stonework was completed.

Incan site of Ollantaytambo

Overlooking the town from the top of the ruins

Ollantaytambo

Inca doorway built to slant inward for extra stability during earthquakes

View from our drive back to Cusco

Highest point of the day! The second highest we've ever been.

Back in Cusco, we decided to give Chifa another chance since there was a nice-looking place right next to our apartment. The pork in tausi sauce was delicious. The lime chicken was a little weird.

Attempt two at Chifa at a place right near our apartment.  Much better!

We have another day in Cusco, then a day visiting a couple more Sacred Valley sites on our way back to Ollantaytambo, and finally Machu Picchu!

Bienvenidos a Perú & a Dinner at Central!

Time for our next big adventure... South America for the first time!

Friday night we left for our South American adventure in Peru, which is basically a 7-hour plane ride straight south of Atlanta.  This is our first trip south of the equator.  Sorry, folks, the toilets don't actually flush in the opposite direction down here!

Our flight arrived in Lima at 11:30PM on Friday.  We spent all day Saturday in Lima and are heading to Cusco on Sunday. After 5 days in Cusco and the Sacred Valley, we're heading down south for a couple of days in Arequipa, then returning for another day and a half in this Pacific Ocean metropolis.  Many people skip Lima on their trip to Peru, and head straight to Cusco and Machu Picchu, however Lima is a large city of nearly 9 million people and holds the crown as the gastronomical capital of South America, so you know we had to check it out.

The seaside location of the city is quite dramatic, and a fog hangs over most of the city. The weather has been pretty good - it was in the 60s during the day, and got a bit chilly at night, but not too bad. Our hotel is in the Miraflores district, a nice/trendy area south of downtown on cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  After getting up on Saturday we got some breakfast at our hotel of eggs, bread and fruit.  The bread here is very good.  Unfortunately, there is not a subway system in most of Lima so we caught a cab to the historic district in the city center.  Cabs here are plentiful and somewhat cheap.  Our ride to the city center was 20 soles, or about $7.  We used cabs a lot in Lima.  I really think people exaggerate the risks of using taxis in developing countries.  Just tell the driver where you want to go and get a price up front and you're not going to get cheated.

The historic district in Lima is pretty interesting.  There are a lot of government buildings, plazas, and churches to see.  There aren't many modern buildings or highrises in this part of the city.  Overall, the historic district of Lima is similar to, but not quite as impressive as, Mexico City's historic area, but it was still interesting and full of people.

Plaza San Martin in Lima's historic center

Iglesia de la Merced, built in 1541

Iglesia de la Merced, interior

Plaza de Armas, La Catedral de Lima

La Catedral de Lima

Iglesia de Santo Domingo, a 16th Century church.  Three Peruvian saints are buried here.

Hanging out in central Lima

Guards in front of the Palacio del Gobierno (Presidential Palace)

Our favorite site in central Lima was the monastery and catacombs of San Francisco. Built in the 16th century, it holds the remains of tens of thousands of people. We went on a tour and saw plenty of bones in the basement. There's also a really impressive moorish-style carved wooden dome reminiscent of something from Sevilla or Cordoba, a Last Supper painting where the main dish is guinea pig (cuy), and an impressive library with 25,000 volumes of rare historic books. Unfortunately no pictures are allowed inside.

Monastario de San Francisco

View from downtown Lima

Look!  David is an ice cream here!

Chickens for sale at the Mercado Central

Incense for sale in Lima's Chinatown (Barrio Chino)

While in the Barrio China, we stopped at a Lonely Planet recommended Chifa restaurant (Chinese-Peruvian fusion).  Chifas are all over town!  Unfortunately, it's extra difficult to interpret the menu when it's Spanish versions of Chinese dishes, so we weren't super happy with what we ordered...but I'm pretty sure we'll give Chifa another chance before heading back to the States.

After leaving the central district, we went west to visit a museum and ride a roller coaster (of course!) before going back to Miraflores.

Museo Nacional de Antropologia, Arqueologia y Historia del Peru

El Gusanito at Coney Park - Paul's 561st roller coaster, and his first coaster south of the equator!

Surfers near Miraflores

Lima largely doesn't interact much with its oceanfront.  The city is perched on cliffs above the sea.  The water here is cold because of the Humboldt current, which along with its location on the lee side of the Andes Mountains profoundly impacts the climate of the city.  Lima is very humid and yet receives very little precipitation, and is cool year round despite its location just 11 degrees south of the equator.  As a result, almost nothing is air conditioned or heated, so everything has a very open air feeling which is pretty nice.  There are several parks that lead down to the waterfront, but not much development along the waterfront itself.  We did visit an open air mall called Larcomar built into the cliffs called in Miraflores.  It's quite beautiful, and we enjoyed a mid-afternoon dessert and drinks while looking out over the cliffs down to the ocean.

Desert at Larcomar - made with Peruvian fruit

This mass produced Peruvian beer (owned by Miller) was not bad. Much better than the normal "blanca" version.

Then we found some local craft beers at Lima Rugby Restobar. There's only about 5 microbreweries in all of Peru.

After relaxing at the hotel for a while, we had a reservation at Central Restaurante, which is ranked as one of the 50 best restaurants in the world. We had a fantastic meal of nuevoandean cuisine, and were absolutely stuffed by the end. Definitely a unique experience! It was very expensive by Peruvian standards, at about $80 per person, but it was well worth it.

Drinks!

Octopus with charred purple corn, lentils and olive

A beautiful fruit and seed ceviche

Hot ceviche with an amazing broth and edible yucca "charcoal"

Goat cheesecake with eucalyptus scented dry ice rock bowl

David's amazing "graviola tree" dessert

Coulant Cacao with lemon ice cream and passionfruit jelly

Our first day in Lima was a great introduction to colonial and modern Peru, topped off with some good beer and a fantastic meal. At our next stop, Cusco, we'll delve into Incan history. Stay tuned for more Peruvian adventures!