Cusco

Our first experience of Cusco (/Cuzco) wasn’t great. We’d been emailed the night before by the hotel to say that there was a bus and taxi strike and that the taxi we had booked with them would not be able to pick us up from the airport after our flight from Lima. When we did land, there were so many people stranded at the airport who hadn’t known about the strikes. We waited outside for a while to see if there was any way we could get transport into the city center but after about ten minutes we decided to just walk as we had no idea how long we might wait/ waste trying to wait for a bus or a taxi. We soon found out that bus/ taxi strikes, or the threat of them, is common throughout Peru.

It was quite intimidating landing somewhere completely unfamiliar, where you don’t speak the language and then walking with all your worldly goods, solely reliant on your phone to give you directions. There were so many dogs roaming around, walking through what felt like shady neighbourhoods with no other westerners in sight, and quickly constructed ‘road blocks’ with large rocks all over the place. It took us around an hour and I did have to stop once but I think we did pretty well considering we’d just landed at 3,399m above sea level. We knew we were getting closer to the town centre as we started to see women in traditional dress with llamas and alpacas, including some incredibly cute baby ones.

After finally making it to the hotel, we went for lunch a few doors down and had our first sip of Inca Kola, which is the most popular soft drink in Peru and is super sweet, tasting a bit like cream soda. All the advice I’d read said to rest on your first day in Cusco to try and avoid any altitude symptoms, so for the rest of the afternoon we napped and drank coca leaf tea – luckily I had a very mild headache and Simon seemed fine. We’d only planned to spend three days in Cusco before starting our Inca Trail trek because I’d read so much online about altitude sickness and didn’t want anything to ruin our trek. Cusco is known for being the gateway to Machu Picchu but, as we were to find out over the course of the next three days, it’s a super cool city that deserves to be visited in its own right. It is apparently the oldest living city in the Americas and was the capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th to Spanish colonisation in the 16th century, so there’s lots of history to be explored. It’s no wonder the city was designated as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1983.

In the evening we went to a great restaurant I’d been recommended called Organika, which was small and busy with great locally grown food. To get back to our hotel we walked through the main square – Plaza De Armas – previously the centre of the Inca empire where administrative, military, and political decisions were made and today it is still the centre of modern Cusco. It was bustling despite being quite cold, with women helpfully selling wool hats and gorgeous scarves, people taking in the atmosphere, and the main attractions – Cusco Cathedral and Church La Compania de Jesus – beautifully lit. It was interesting to see the juxtaposition between these historic buildings and the McDonald’s, KFC and Starbucks that have managed to get prime positions in the square!

The next morning we woke up early so had breakfast at 7am and then began our day. It started off well, sitting in Plaza De Armas, which was even more beautiful in the light as you could appreciate the surrounding mountains, detail of the historical buildings, and the imposing Cristo Blanco – large white Jesus statue – looking down over the square. We were particularly lucky with the gorgeous blue skies, surrounded by gardeners tending to the colourful gardens and tourists starting to appear and meander around the square. We read more about the religious buildings we’d seen the night before that dominated the square, with Cusco Cathedral being a catholic cathedral completed in 1654, nearly 100 years after construction began; the Christian church right next to it, Church of Triumph (Iglesia del Triunfo), which was actually the first one to be built in the main square with construction beginning in 1536; and finally, Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús (Church of the Society of Jesus), which is a Jesuit church built on an Inca palace.

We then spent ages on Avenue el Sol trying to find money but there were barely any ATMs and the ones we did try in the banks didn’t work with our card so we went back to the hotel and luckily the shop over the road had an ATM that worked. We then tried to find Llama Path – the company we’d booked our Inca Trail trek with – only to find it had moved location. So despite getting up early it took us until 11am before we had got the money out that we needed and made it to Llama Path to pay the outstanding balance for the trek.

After we’d done our admin, we started the self-guided walking tour in the Lonely Planet book, which gave us our first taste of what beautiful Cusco has to offer, with its mix of narrow streets and open plazas. We started from Plaza de Armas and wandered through all the main roads and squares in the city, taking in the unique fusion of baroque architecture and Inca stone foundations, a legacy of both the Inca empire and Spanish colonialism. Highlights included, Plaza San Francisco with the church of San Francisco; the church and convent of Santa Clara; and the manic but authentic Peruvian market, Mercado San Pedro, where we ordered a freshly made fruit juice at one of the many stalls. You can find anything here, from fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and meats, to flowers and handmade alpaca clothing as well as market stalls selling street food.

For lunch we tried to find two restaurants recommended in the Lonely Planet book but they had also moved(!) so we went to a random one and had lomo saltado (sautéed beef) and alpaca steak (kind of like dry chicken), which I must say was tastier than I was expecting it to be. We then continued on the self-guided tour and saw the famous ‘12 angled stone’, which is popular with locals and tourists for being an example of the Inca’s advanced architecture. We then made our way up the VERY steep and winding roads to Plaza San Blas, Cusco’s hipster area. It is a really quaint place (pedestrian-only) and not very touristy, with cobblestones, Inca irrigation channels, and rock carvings alongside numerous artist workshops and studios.

We made it the c.2km all the way up from the central plaza to the entrance of Sacsaywamán (much easier to say ‘sexy woman’) – a hilltop Inca fortress. We decided not to go in but walked a little way down the road (rather than back through all the houses) and found an incredible lookout, where we stayed for ages in awe of the amazing views over the densely packed city with terracotta roofs, surrounded by beautiful mountains. There were women in the lookout with a baby alpaca and llama, which at this stage we still new and exciting for us so we tried to sneak some pictures of these super cute animals. It was only a 10 minute walk downhill back to Plaza de Armas, where we did some more people watching and took some photos by the ornate fountain, and another 5 minutes back to our hotel where we had some coca tea and relaxed for a couple of hours. We’d already done 17,000 steps and 17 floors that day, which with the altitude made us sleepy.

In the evening, we treated ourselves to a full body massage before going to dinner. Due to the location of our hotel we again had to walk through the main square to get to our restaurant for dinner and saw a massive procession outside the cathedral, carrying a huge statue of Mary and baby Jesus with a festival type atmosphere including a marching band, chanting, and dancing. They appeared to be making their way up to the Cristo Blanco statue at the top of the hill as it was lit up (and hadn’t been the night before). We wished them good luck as it was steep enough without a ridiculous weight on your shoulders! We couldn’t find any information online so were weren’t sure if it’s a regular Friday night thing or a one off celebration – but as we were to find Peruvians are always celebrating something or other. We went to Tacomania for dinner, which had been recommended for the alpaca fajitas but as we’d already had alpaca that day I had veggie tacos and Simon had chicken enchiladas. Our first full day in Cusco had been a success and we’d absolutely loved exploring it.

The next morning we kicked off with the Inkan Milky Way free walking tour to learn a bit more about the city. We saw many of the sites we’d seen the day before but this time we had a better idea of what we were actually looking at! We also learnt some interesting things about the culture, for example that there are 13 provinces in Cusco, each distinguished by different style clothes and 70% of the population speak both Spanish and Quechua (indigenous language of Peru) and 30% speak only Quechua. We also saw some San Pedro (masculine) and ayahuasca (feminine) growing in Plaza San Francisco, which are used in Andean ceremonies and require 2 weeks preparation beforehand and 2 weeks recovery after (no meat, alcohol, sex etc). In the west they have a reputation for giving you an ‘enlightening trip’. Unsurprisingly the lady explained about a number of plants but the shortest ones were the San Pedro and ayahuasca as locals come by and chop some off every now and then for personal use.

We walked around San Pedro market again, learning about the different things being sold, and this time we bought some dark chocolate and tried a quinoa drink (white chicha) in a plastic bag. We went back to Plaza de Armas via a side street where we went inside and there were some llama and alpacas to have photos with – even though they’re supposedly domesticated I still didn’t want to get too close. We also learnt that the most beautiful girls went to a special school where they were taught all about the importance of making a sacrifice and would then be taken to Machu Picchu when they were about 13 to be sacrificed. The final thing we learnt that stuck with me, and immediately became obvious once it had been pointed out, that the colonial buildings had mostly been built on the older Inca buildings because the foundations were so solid. All in all it was a very interesting tour.

After the tour we went to local restaurant recommended by the guide and had our first taste of guinea pig… deep fried guinea pig with claws and teeth and everything… we weren’t fans! But it was a cool local restaurant that was absolutely heaving and had a show with traditional dancing and music. On the way back to the hotel, we went to the vegan restaurant next door to our hotel for dessert where I had massive chocolate and fruit pancakes and Simon had a beer.

After some coca tea we spent some time resting in the afternoon but there were fireworks going off all the time – as I said Peruvians are always celebrating something. In the evening we had a briefing at Llama Path for our Inca trail trek and met our guide and the people we’d be spending the next four days with. It was a helpful briefing but it did make us a little nervous that we weren’t properly prepared! I think most of the nerves came from finding our trek in Mount Rinjani, Indonesia so difficult and wondering if we’d made a mistake booking another difficult trek. Afterwards, we went for a fantastic dinner at Menar Peruvian Kitchen, where I had the best veggie burger I’ve ever eaten before an early night ready to get up at 3am for the start of our Inca Trail experience.