Cheap Date in Cusco

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Julie - Hola from Peru! We are in Cusco, 3,400 metres up in the Andes Mountains and we are loving it. We have been here for five days and are settling in nicely. Cusco is a city of about 300,000 people so while it is quite busy, it is also very tranquil in comparison to Buenos Aires. The flight into Cusco is amazing...we had met Catriona from Getaway at the recent Sydney Travel Show and she advised us to sit on the left hand side of the plane as we flew into Cusco to get the best view. The pilot has to do a loop around through the mountains into the valley and land on a small airstrip. Just beautiful.

We spent the first three days at Los Aticos hostel but the bed was really small and the room cold so we have moved to Hostel San Blas for the remainder of our stay. Everything is very close to walk to here and there are so many restaurants and shops it´s not funny. People in the streets try to sell you dolls, clothing, postcards and pictures...just walking around you are approached by someone about every 30 seconds. We also are staying in what I call ¨massage street¨, because every second door leads to a massage place and the touts stand out the front shouting ¨Miss, massage...Mr, massage¨...

We have been out of town a couple of times already. On Sunday we went to Pisac in the mountains, about 45 minutes away. They have a huge market so we bought a few things there. We also took a tour to the Inca ruins of Pisac...again at about 3,500 metres trekking uphill to the ruins was breath-taking...both the view and the climb. We paid about $10 for a guide to show us around. We then took a local bus the 30kms back to Cusco...it cost us about 80 cents each.

The food here is amazing...although I am still not eating very much. I love the Quinoa Soup (quinoa is a local grain, similar to rice) and Marco loves the Lomo Saltado, which is beef, onion, tomato stirfried mixed in with hot potato chips. I tried the trout last night which wasn´t too bad either...that´s mostly all the fish they have here. I am slowly recovering from the bug I caught but have also had a cold, as well as a fall down some stairs which hurt my wrist. Marco has been as fit as a fiddle luckily and is taking good care of me.

We hope to go further into the Sacred Valley this weekend and then onto Machu Picchu this time next week but there are still so many things to see here in Cusco that we will be here a few more days. OK, till next time...

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Photos

Choclo con queso
Corn with cheese

Coca Tea
Tea with coca leaves for the altitude sickness

Lomo Saltado
Beef, onion, tomato stirfried with chips and rice

The corn of Peru
so many different types

Marco with local people
in traditional costume

Pisac Ruins
3,500 metres up in the Andes mountains

Inca Stonework
Us with the our guide´s niece

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