Cuzco, or Cusco as it is officially named, is a city on the eastern slope of the Andes and home to approximately 440,000 residents. 

After meeting our fellow G Adventurers (14 women, to hubby’s dismay) the previous night, we take an early morning one hour flight from Lima to Cusco.

The altitude of 3,399 metres (11,152 feet) hits some of us almost immediately as we huff and puff with our heavy backpacks to the baggage retrieval. Missing from our baggage is hubby’s Leatherman knife because we rushed at the airport to consolidate bags to speed up our check-in process and security wasn’t going to let him board with it as a carry-on item.
Once we arrived at our hotel, we quickly drop off the bags and Andrès, our Chief Experience Officer (CEO in G terms), takes us on a quick tour of the downtown. It’s uphill for a way but thankfully we are not sweating much as it is a cloudy day and we stop often to help us catch our breath from the 10% less oxygen that we had in Lima which is at sea level.

We can see immediately the Spanish colonial influence around us in the buildings, Inca walls and again the wooden balconies. Prickly pears are sold on the street and the women will gladly peel them for you to eat right there and then.

We stop for lunch, and we are there not even ten minutes when all of a sudden we hear the load roar outside and inside, we started feeling drops of water falling from the ceiling. It’s a torrential hailstorm followed by torrential rain. We all rush to take videos and photos!

Then later, the sun appears and we ditch the coats. You can buy great Alpaca wear in Cusco. The level of softness depends on the animal and the shearing. For example, when they say Alpaca, it is the second shearing, so not as soft as baby alpaca which is the first shearing. Vicuña wool is a different animal and much rarer but is the softest of them and the most expensive. You have to be wary of some shops that try to sell you baby alpaca when it is in fact polyester! One way to find out is that by touching the wool, fake alpaca will be warmer to the touch instead of cool.

Andrès takes us to a chocolate factory where we taste twelve different kinds of chocolate! Very dark, lighter dark, milk, white, spicy and then are given small shots of all other liqueurs they make with it! Yummy!

On our full day the next day, we really stretch our legs and lungs by walking about 13km in a city of inclines. First, visiting and climbing the steps of the bell tower of the Jesuit Church in Plaça de Armas to get a bird’s eye view of the square.

We ditch the recommendation of our guide to take a taxi and opt to walk up the hill to get to Sacsayhuaman (or pronounced funnily as “Sexy Woman”), which is a remnant fortress of the Incas. It’s a 300 meters elevation difference, and it takes us about 45 minutes with breathing breaks (and obligatory alpaca photos) to get up to the ticket office. Along the way, we see a beautiful waterfall.

We find it best to pay a local guide that is always available, to show us and explain about how the limestone rocks were cut using stone, bronze or copper tools along fracture lines and hammer stones to shape the blocks. Teams of men would pull and stacked the stones into place. There is not even space in between the enormous stones to slide a piece of paper between them!

There are many little gems as you descend back down like a small restaurant that overlooks the city and many cobblestone streets full fo art, flowers and even someone playing an accordion!

The food in Cusco is just as good as Lima. And the presentation? The best we’ve ever seen in all of our travels. It is no wonder that Peru is one of the world’s foodie hotspot. Though their traditional staples are corn, potatoes (over 3,500 varieties), tubers, legumes and quinoa, don’t let that fool you into thinking it would be bland and bloating. And let’s not forget Pisco Sour and the requisite Coca tea to help with altitude sickness!

Our guide took us to many other restaurants for lunch and dinners where we tried alpaca meat (delicious!) as well Guinea pig. Yes! Though North Americans and Europeans consider them as pets, here in Peru, guinea pig is a delicacy and older generations will usually prepare a meal of it to celebrate one of their own or have a bbq set up alongside the road. We will show you more about guinea pig in our next blog!

Our next stay in Cusco happens after our visit to Machu Picchu (separate blog), though this time it is very short due to our excursion to Rainbow Mountain (separate blog). See you in the Sacred Valley!