Cusco - Part 1 !

Our second stop of our Peruvian adventure was Cusco, the historic capital city of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th century when the Spanish conquest occurred.  Cusco is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and can be reached by plane from Lima in around 1 hour and 15 minutes.  We flew with Peruvian Air on a stunning flight over the Andes Mountains.

You will not find the high rise buildings and modern shopping complexes of Lima in Cusco.  The architecture is very traditional, and while Lima was located on Pacific coast, Cusco is nestled in the mountains.  We definitely felt a different in altitude walking up and down the hilly streets of Cusco.  Upon arrival at our lovely hotel, Rumi Punku, we were offered a cup of coca leaf tea (aka "mate de coca").  People drink this tea to minimize the effects of altitude sickness.  It's actually made from the leaves of the coca plant which contain alkaloids, which are the source for cocaine base when extracted chemically.  You won't be tripping out on this tea though - the amount of coca alkaloid in the raw leaves is very minimal.  Despite this, coca leaf tea is still illegal in the USA (and probably Canada!).  I'm not sure if it really helped us with the altitude, but we drank it regularly throughout our stay in Cusco and didn't have any major side effects.  We also went straight for a long nap upon arrival in Cusco early in the morning, as we heard that being rested and well-hydrated helps to minimize the effects.  The elevation of Cusco is 3399 metres above sea level.

I loved Cusco - with its winding narrow streets filled with colourful vendors and random goats and llamas, historic square, and scenic mountain views.  The first place we explored in Cusco was the main square, Plaza de Armas, with two grand churches dominating the space.  During our time here there was a huge Independence Day ceremony and parade on one of the days, which made walking around pretty claustrophobic.  Beyond the square is the San Pedro market, where you can buy plenty of souvenirs such as alpaca wool scarves and sweaters, and eat all sorts of local foods at the vendor stalls.

On our second day in Cusco we climbed up the stairs of a winding street to the neighbourhood of San Blas.  Upon reaching the Church of San Blas, we had an amazing view of Cusco and the mountains surrounding it.  When walking around in Cusco I did feel myself getting out of breath quicker than I normally would when climbing uphill!

We had a half-day guided tour of Cusco and the surrounding Incan ruins, and the first stop was the Church of Santo Domingo which was built upon the site of Qurikancha, the Incan Temple of the Sun.  This place was the most important temple in the Incan Empire, dedicated to the sun god Inti.  Despite all the earthquakes over the years, many of the temple walls survived due to the fact that they were made out of huge, tightly-interlocking "Lego"-style bricks.

Our guide also took us to some ancient Incan sites, the most important being the citadel of Saqsaywaman which was used as a fortress.  It was dismantled after the Spaniards gained control of the area and all that remains today are some high rock walls and random rocks strewn about on the hills overlooking Cusco.  This was also our first "wild llama" sighting!  Nearby we also spotted the large, white Cristo Blanco statue overlooking Cusco which we first noticed shining at us from atop the mountain while walking around the streets of Cusco at night.

One of the best things about Cusco besides its history are the amazing restaurants.  I was very impressed with the food in Peru.  The quality and the prices were great, and we often found restaurants with traditional local food with a modern twist.  The best restaurant we ate at in Cusco was called Morena Peruvian Kitchen.  We ate there several times and each time the food and service was excellent.  The juices were so fresh and the food was delicious with so many interesting flavours.  The best things we ate there were the Amazonian chicken wings, chicha morada - a sweet drink made from purple corn, and almond ice cream with brownies served in a cocoa bean.  My mouth still waters thinking about all the amazing food there!

Bienvenidos a Lima!

This past July we finally made it to beautiful Peru - a destination that was #1 on my travel list for a long time.  The flight on Air Canada Rouge from Toronto to Lima was approximately 8 hours direct, and we arrived at around 2:00AM.  The good news is that we had pre-booked our trip with a company called Alpaca Expeditions which arranged for a cab to pick us up and bring us to our hotel.  This was a relief, as the surrounding area of the Lima airport seemed sketchy and there weren't a lot of English speakers around.  Sadly all those Spanish classes in university did not pay off... oops!  As Iva says, "if you don't use it, you lose it!"

Our hotel in Lima was located in the neighbourhood of Miraflores, around one hour away from the airport.  Most of the roads were dark and desolate at night and buildings we passed by were fortified by huge locked gates, kind of unsettling!  The good news was that during the day it was another story.  Gates were open and people were out and about - it was quite vibrant!  Lima was a lot less scary by daylight, and a cool place to walk around.

On our first full day in Peru we wandered over to the Larcomar, which is this cool semi-outdoor shopping centre with amazing views of the Pacific Ocean.  Lima is known for its grey and cloudy weather, and this morning there was no exception.  We visited Peru during Peruvian winter time which is Canadian summer time.  Peruvians wear pants, coats, hats, scarves, mittens during this time of year... John was wearing shorts to give you an idea of the weather!

After wandering around Larcomar we stumbled upon a famous churro shop called Manolo which I remembered reading about online.  I'm still thinking about those churros today... I would love to eat a dulce de leche churro right about now!

Not far from Manolo was the famous "cat" park - Parque Kennedy.  This park is overrun by cats.  They were sleeping everywhere, some of them oblivious to people taking selfies with them or prodding them while they slept.  I was sitting on the edge of a fountain playing around with my camera and suddenly the next thing I knew there was a cat on my lap.  It startled me but was quite friendly, aside from the fact that it sneezed on my jacket (thank you, hand sanitizer)!  It actually wouldn't get off my lap when I tried to stand up later.  I had to physically remove it from my lap before leaving the park!

On our first afternoon in Lima we met up with a day tour guide named Jimmy that the company arranged for us to take us around Lima.  The first place Jimmy brought us to was the church and monastery of San Francisco (St. Francis).  We went into the catacombs, where over 25,000 bodies were laid to rest.  This place acted as a burial place for the dead until another cemetery was opened outside Lima.  It's always eerie to walk in the catacombs, but also very interesting since the bodies have been resting there since after the church was blessed in 1673 and completed in 1774.  Despite the fact that the church has been damaged many times by earthquakes over the years, the catacombs have held up fairly well.  Within the complex we were also taken to the library, with over 25000 ancient texts, as well as the Spanish baroque church.

After our tour of "Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco," Jimmy took us to Bar Cordano nearby - a famous old bar founded in 1905.  We tried our first Peruvian Cerveza "Cusqueña" there.  It was nice to sit down and have a cold drink, watching the people pass by outside.

Our final stop with Jimmy was Plaza de Armas/Plaza Mayor, where Francisco Pizarro founded the city.  We were lucky enough to witness some lively music performances which were going on in preparation for the upcoming Peruvian Independence Day on July 28.

Seeing the city of Lima with a guide made us appreciate its history more.  Jimmy was also able to give us some recommendations of things to eat and drink during our time in Peru.  Later on in the evening, John and I went to a lovely restaurant in Miraflores called Mama Olla where we had our first delicious "pisco sour" cocktails and tried one of the famous dishes of the region, ceviche - raw fish cured with citrus juices.  I don't like seafood, but ceviche wasn't overly fishy-tasting, as I mostly just tasted the lemon juice.  We also tried a dish called causa.  It was kind of like mashed potatoes, Peruvian style - but cold and stuffed with chicken salad, vegetables, and topped with egg.  Overall, I was impressed with Lima and glad that we were able to spend some time there to begin our time in Peru.