Peru trip - Cusco

Day 0 - Flight 

BLR -> Paris -> Lima -> Cusco

We took the bold decision to directly go to Cusco, that is to not spend a night in Lima. We kept a gap of 4 hrs between landing at Lima and then flying to Cusco. We had to collect our luggage and re-check-in for the domestic flight. But, our flight departed late from BLR, landed late in Paris, the next flight from Paris was delayed and then we landed an hr late in Lima. But, thankfully, we were on time. As they say, fortune favors the brave... or in our country - this was a masterstroke of planning. 

At Lima airport, we got the first taste of lack of veg food options... if the airport had so few options, then what would happen. We landed at Cusco at 10 pm and the hotel had booked us a taxi for pickup. It was cold but manageable. 

Our stay was at Amaru Colonial Cusco, one of the rare original Spanish architecture based hotels. The entrance is via a small one-vehicle wide cobbled road with no space to park, but once you are inside, it was awesome. Overall, our hotel would be 4/5 for decor and 3.5 overall. 

Day 1 - Cusco

Kanishka found an excellent city tour. It covered - 

Plaza de Armas - Q'enco  - Saqsaywaman - Puka Pukara - Tambomachay - Coricancha 

The starting point was walkable from our hotel.  At the Plaza, some kids were practicing for the festival, we saw the dance and roamed around there. It is a pretty cool hangout places with fancy cafes and activities going on. 

We hopped on a bus to cover these places. Most of the places are ruins of Incas. Usecase of some are known but others, it is a guesswork. For example - Puka Pukara was a market, it sat at the intersection of the Incan trail and a detour to get to Cusco. Now, it is all ruins. 

My favorite of the mix was Saqsaywaman - this was built as the meeting place for the Cusco leaders to welcome guests. It has three layers (floors) of zig-zag well structured stones. Some of the stones are huge and they are not local. They were dragged from 12-15 kms away. Dragging those stones with human hands plus some ropes, would have been an engineering feat at that point. 

Our guide also shared a glimpse of local challenges. The rates at Plaza De Armas are 2-3x of rates at other places. There is a lot of corruption in Peru. The trust on govt. is low. Many of these sounded familiar to us. 

We were tired by the end, so we decided to skip Coricancha and instead headed for lunch. Our lunch was at Vida Vegan Bistro Cusco . I had my first taste of Vegan Pisco sour ( a national drink which typically contains egg). We had burger and pasta and paid 20 soles (INR 600) for two bottles of water. First lesson that water in restaurants are not free.  Post lunch, we went to hotel and crashed.

We stepped out in the evening and again visited the Plaza.  Our dinner was at this Chia Vegan restaurant. The food was amazing. Peru is known for its variety of potatoes and we had one here. 

Day 2 - Cusco to Ollantaytambo via Sacred Valley tour.

We checked out post breakfast and dragged our suitcases on the cobbled street to meet the tour-van. Our night stay was at Ollantaytambo. Kanishka did the clever booking - Sacred valley tours includes Ollantaytambo, so she found one who can give us the tour and also drop us there. That made things simpler

Sacred Valley tour started with a local textile shop Textile quechua . Cusco is known for making winterwear using LLama wool. At this shop, they showed the process of how the wool is made from the llama fur. Pretty good exerperience. They also were selling stuff, the quality seemed good but so did the prices, so, we didn't buy anything. 

Our next stop was Chinchero. Another Incan ruin with a beautiful step farming setup. It was burnt down to prevent the Spanish inquisition here. Next stop was Maras Moray - a circular terrace farming place. Our guide told story that it was like a farming laboratory for Incans. After returning back, I got curious and did more research. The farming laboratory theory is now called bogus. But to sell a narrative, it is pretty cool. The sights here were also great.  Maras Moray was peaceful, green, serene. 

Our next top were the Maras salt mines. We also stopped before at a salt shop and bought expensive salt :) Salt mines are unique, cool, and crowded. But, worth a visit. We had authentic buffet lunch after this. The buffet had few good veg options and flan for dessert. We were sorted. 

Upong reaching Ollantaytambo, we skipped the Ollantaytamo ruins from the Sacred valley tour. We wanted to do so at our own pace. We checked into the Airbnb, which was right next to the Plaza de Armas of Ollantaytambo. Our airbnb had kitchen, so we headed out to buy water and veggies :) 

At the local market, we saw a 7 gallon water being sold from 12 Soles to 30 Soles. Kanishka did her best to bargain but they were better. Veggies were fresh, juicy and delicious - this is an hilly area, so veggies are grown locally. The market was also like a local basement kind of market but still okay-ish clean. Not as clean as Japan ones :) but a lot better than Bangalore. 

At midnight we celebrated Kanishka's birthday. We bought a local brownie but got looted. The brownie was very small and it was for 15 soles. The Ollantaytambo market was a good walk, not much crowds in the evening, well lit and weather was also good. 

Day 3 - Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is worth the hype! 

It is hyper commercialized. The trains to reach there are expensive but they are luxurious. There is no road access.  Machu Pichu allows only 4500 visitors per day. One has to select which routes to pick for sightseeing, and the route #2 - where you can walk among the ruins get sold out the fastest. Then you have to book the trains, the bus from train station to entry point, a guide for local sight seeing etc. Kanishka did all the planning here and we booked the Panoramic route which in my opinion is the best one :) 

Machu Pichu was never finished. It was not a functional city, it was still under construction. It was abandoned when Spanish folks came. Spainiards never reached here, so it was under moss and ruins until it was rediscovered by a adventurer geologist. It is one of the new Seven wonders of the world. 

The train journey is very scenic. We follow the Urubamba river nestled in the mountains. It is like a Vista dome train. The attendants are multi-talented. The attendants does the job of ticket-checker, serving food-drinks, and in the onward journey, we had a mini traditional ritual that was performed by the attendants only. On the way back, Kanishka booked the other train company - Peru Rail and they are also getting into apparel. So, their attendants did a whole fashion show ramp walk. The number of things expected by attendants is just amazing. 

Machu Picchu was surreal. Our guide was an expert in taking Insta-worthy photos and made us pose. But once the photo-shoot was done, we got time to sit and admire the wonder. It is amazing. Between the mountains, so quite, peaceful. You get to see the whole thing only in the Panoramic route and I think it is the best one. If you are inside, you do not get to see the big picture, the expanse of it. Only in Panoramic, the beauty comes alive. 

The station town is called Aguas Calientes. After Machu Picchu, we walked the streets and had lunch at Iskcon themed vegan restaurant by the name of Govinda. The whole town is pricey.  We had some quinoa khichdi and it was yum! We walked through the markets, bought our souvenir magnets here. 

We had dinner at a train-bogey themed restaurant next to the station only. The food was awesome. We walked back to Airbnb. This was the highlight of the trip - best day. 

Day 4 - Ollantaytambo

Day 4 was meant to be chill day.  We had carried Theplas from home. Breakfast was boiled eggs, Thepla, yogurt and salad. I think our meals during travel are way more healthier than at home :) 

The market outside the ruins was interesting, After the walk, we ended up buying sweaters and caps. Kanishka demonstrated her bargaining skills - I could not believe that we got 60% discount. 

We did a leisurely walk to the Ollantaytambo ruins and explored it. Beyond the ruins, there were some spots even higher and we had to walk there. We took an easy stroll to climb and reach there - it was sunny but not super hot. 

The Ollantaytambo ruins are special - it was a living  city, fully functional one. When the Spaniards came, they attacked the city but a 19 year old warrior was able to defeat them. This is the reason they never reached Machu Picchu, they turned back there. All Incan ruins have certain things as common - a Sun temple for example. Incan worshipped the Sun god and June 24st, they celebrate the Inti Raymi,  a festival dedicated to Sun god. It is difficult to understand how people lived during those times but the space is huge and structure is solid. 

Post the ruin visit, we had lunch at the Plaza and had the worst Burrito ever. And at the cost of 50 soles, it was a loot. We visited our favorite local grocery store, bought bread, butter and stuff and then had a nice salad + bread as dinner. We also used this day to do laundry :) 

During the evening stroll, we tried local street food. One such drink was Emoliente - a herbal drink made of roasted barley, lemon, sugar and herbs. It is served hot and it was awesome! Our Airbnb had kitchen, heater and hot water. It was next to plaza. It was one of those Inca ancestral home, next to the cobbled streets. I would rate it 4/5 for the experience. 

Day 5 - Back to Cusco

We took a cab from Ollantaytambo to Cusco. It was a 3 hr ride. Our driver knew english. He was from the  jungle but spoke english fluently, On the way, we say these purple colored drinks sold in bottle and we asked him what it is. It was Chicha Morada , made of fermented corn. We bought it and it was awesome! 

Our one night stay at Cusco was at hotel Hacienda . This was far from the Plaza. The hotel was ok - basic, functional. It was next to the Pedro market, so that is where we started. 

Pedro market is the local grocery+food+chocolate market there. It has vendor stalls selling all kinds of things. One such thing is roasted guinea pigs :) We tried some cakes, some random items, empinada and finally found a vegan restaurant there - Vegan Pinto and had one of the best ROI (taste over money) meals. We were full but the meal was yum! 

After this, we went to see the Coricancha museum - it used to be an Incan temple taken over by Spanish clergy and it was then their sacred place. We didn't had a guide so we didn't enjoy it much. The one thing that I remember is reading about the history and it is here we learnt that Incans used to believe in sacrifices - they sacrificed kids too, sometimes burying them alive in ground. So, Incans were also superstitious and had places to offer sacrifices and many such weird rituals. 

Post Coricancha, we went back to the plaza. This was a parade day there - a local festical where they shift the statues of some renowned old priests from one church to another. It was festive atmosphere there. 

We had bought a group-pass to get access to multiple-sites. Kanishka figured out that it included a local cultural performance. It was fun. The music is really like the traditional one - lot of flute. It is a govt. run institution, so things are still how they were in 70s :) But we enjoyed it. 

Dinner was a walk to a pizza place - fresh oven baked pizza was good. By this time, we were using Uber, so we took the uber back to hotel. 

Next day, we took the flight to Puerto Maldonado