Blogs from Cusco, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 9

Cusco, the Inca capital is incredible, not only for its history but it's friendly people. Our guesthouse, run by a local Cusco lady and her awesome dog Godart, was in her house behind a flooring shop which occupied the narrow corridor to her house. We only realised this was a shop after a few nights and always wondered why there was a lady with her baby surrounded by bits of wood sitting there as we would pass through to the house. Our first day in Cusco we checked out the cathedral, a building made up of 3 parts, then because the cathedral ticket gave you access to more religious stuff, we ended up doing a religious museum, another traditional church and a church at the top of Cusco, with great views out of Cusco, after a ... read more

Today we travelled to Cuzco. The place everyone raves about. It's our last public bus trip which is nice but in saying that I have also been so impressed by the comfort level of them. Hate to say it but undeniably better then plane travel. Andreas was able to secure us a bus with wider seats in a 2-1 configuration. Most of the group was seated downstairs with 5 of us upstairs. I was in a 1 seater. There was 1 stop on the way to use public toilets and a few ladies were there with alpacas so I got my token alpaca photo. We arrived in Cuzco 330pm and met Andreas 4pm to go for a quick orientation walk. First he took us to the chocolate museum where we got to sample chocolate tea, 5 ... read more

I had thought that after all the physical effort that once back in a proper bed I would sleep well. But I woke early. We met Tony and Lindsey over breakfast reflecting on what a fantastic experience we had been through. We had been really lucky with the group of people we had spent four days with, the guides were excellent and the porters amazing. Looking back we agreed that the trail was not got the faint hearted or unfit. Lindsey had run three marathons, the same number as me, and was planning to run another half when she got back. Her husband, Tony, was also fit. Barry and his wife were also seasoned walkers. John from Seattle, had been working hard to get fit and lose weight before coming on the trip. Joe and Audrey ... read more

This morning we explored Cusco, visiting two of the markets but not buying anything just yet. While in Lima we had found a park full of feral cats lying in the sun, in Cusco it was dogs all dozing peacefully. We ended up in one of the big squares fronted by the cathedral and another large church. The square was full of noise and people, including an army band and troops lined up on parade. We learnt later that this is the run up to big celebrations for Corpus Christie. The image of our lady was paraded around the squares along with various dancing troops. In another square hundreds of school children all in their uniforms were having a noisy time. Fire crackers went off overhead and a food festival was delivering enticing smells. For lunch ... read more

Arriving in the Miraflores district of Lima felt like arriving back in the West. Seeing Starbucks for the first time in 3 months, new buildings made out of materials other than reinforced concrete in a city on the sea felt a bit like we´d accidentally sidetracked to Australia or somewhere. We spent our time in Lima mostly pottering about tracking down some food recommendations that we were given in Ecuador. This included a small hole in the wall seafood place which did amazing cebiche (raw seafood in lime with onion and a chilli kick very different from Ecuadorian ceviche) with fried fish pieces and rice with seafood, all very popular in Peru just good versions of each part. We also went on a food tour in a very pretty well maintained old district of the city. ... read more