First bite of Perú: Cusco

Our last morning in Copacabana we tried a place that we had been curious about: El condor and the eagle.

It's a cafe owned by an Irish expat and his local wife, and they had what we had been dreaming of: beautiful real coffee!

Also really nice Irish bread, juice, scrambled eggs, and one of the coolest ideas I've seen: notebooks with traveler-for-traveler recommendations. Handwritten inspiration from other people who decided to take the time to share their discoveries.

It was a filling breakfast in more than one sense; and energized like that we departed towards Perú.

The country with the coolest official logo.

And also the best popular beer (out of the countries we saw on this trip)

 The bus in which we crossed the border had windows that couldn't be open, and we were unlucky enough to share the (very small) space with a bunch of A.H.s, which was a challenge for our noses.

But finally we made it to Puno for a one night stop on our way to Cusco.

The fairly neat city centre of Puno.

In Puno we noticed two things: we were completely acclimatized to the altitude, and one border crossing can change everything in just a couple of hours.

The first thing we did: go for dinner and order spicy, tasty food and Pisco sour, the Peruvian signature drink. We could barely believe it after Copacabana's blandness... food with taste! spice! 

Happy me, Pisco sour, and the feeling
of waiting for food with flavours.

After dinner we walked around for a while and smelled the scents of a new country and pointed at all the curious things around.

 In Perú you can see something you don't in the southern countries: the Asian influence. 

In colonial times, the Spaniard invaders *spits on the ground* brought slaves from the (also invaded) Philippines to the colonies in all of South America. 

The people brought their culture, their music and the flavours of their cuisine, and (despite the dark origin of their arrival) are responsible for some of the wonderful cultural colour of the country, a melting pot of different  influences that makes Perú one of the most interesting places I've been to.

Walking around you see how people's features start getting different from those of the neighboring country. Also the "Chifas", chinese-style very cheap eateries, and the huge variety of food and spices at the markets. 

We enjoyed our walk and then went to get some sleep, only to be woken up by the "included breakfast" call AT 5 IN THE MORNING.

So since we were already awake (by the cruel, cruel, crazy hostal people), we got ready to keep going towards Cusco.

Chey packing bags. In the background, yet another wonderful wall view.

...

As we usually do when we get to a new place at night, we had booked a place in Cusco beforehand, and headed straight there.

 The place turned out to be too cold and horribly lit (seriously, hostel people... it costs the same to get warm lights, and it makes your guests feel like they're *not* in the morgue, which is always a nice thing). So first thing in the morning we went out looking for a new place, and found a warmer, well lit, private double room for cheaper than two beds in a dorm room. Boom.

Nice light and wifi in the room.

Once we were settled in our new room, we decided to go roam around... we did a lot of roaming around in Cusco, which might be the most beautiful city in South America. 

Adventuring outside the touristy area was fun and intense.

But the centre of the city is just as marvelous with its colonial buildings.

Religious stuff is everywhere, and it mixes
with the local indigenous traditions.

Plaza de Armas, the main square.

Very dignified Inca guy in the centre of Plaza de Armas.

Adobe buildings all around.

Impressive church.

Another view of Plaza de Armas.

More colonial stuff and the "barrios" up the hill.

As many dogs as Valparaiso has cats.

A luckier dog.

Typical costumes at a festival.

Beautiful night Plaza de Armas.

Inca guy's nightlife, everyone wants a photo with him.

Siesta culture.

Llama culture, and a happy Chey.

"Machupicchu museum" and... the fun fact that each country changes
slang, so what probably means something else in Perú would mean
er... "lady parts house" in Argentina: "Casa concha".

Beautiful Inca inspired mural.

Fruit selling ladies.

  The only downside of being in Cusco and being obvious tourists is the harassment of people trying to sell all sorts of things ("Massage, lady, MASAAAAAGE!", "Machu Picchu tours, amigos!", "Paintings!", "Alpaca stuff!" "Come eat our best Guinea pig!"). 

Otherwise, we enjoyed ourselves wildly. So much that we spent a full week there before MP, and another full week after. 

Weeks of the most amazing food, beautiful ancient ruins, cute animals, bar hopping, and decent (tough sometimes lukewarm) coffee.

Since there's so much picture material and I don't want you to leave the blog out of boredom, I'll break this in two posts and show you, to begin, the ruins right outside the Imperial City of Cusco: Sacsayhuaman, Qenqo, Pucapucara and Tambomachay .

We took a local bus where we were the only non locals,
to get off  in the end at this lush green area.

There was only one tour group other than us (advantages of not being early
birds). I acted as a fake guide for Chey and made up a story for the ruins.

We enjoyed the peace and quiet of Tambomachay,
 and walked down to the other ruins.

Everything is imressive, but this was sort of cute.

There was a big group of sheep and llamas grazing at
Pucapucara, the second set of ruins going down.

It's some sort of old market, according to a guide whose
 words we eavesdropped overheard.

Here the camera went flat (hey, there's a reason why this blog is called
"The random adventurers" and not "The very well prepared adventurers").

We didn't cry too much, and continued exploring while
taking pictures with Chey's phone.

Which were not too bad, by the way!

Next was Qenqo, a mind blowing cave carved off a huge rock, surrounded by
more rock carvings, like this comfy rock couches.

Relaxing in the sun, Quechua style.
(truth is: it's not known if it was built by the Incas or the Quechuas)

 Actually, rumour has it that the couch thingies were actually for blood sacrifices.

The cave was a bit too dark to take phone pictures, but it has the same structures and a small canal that might have been to let the blood flow.

It does have a strangely powerful energy.

Walking to the last ruins, we finally tried
Inca Kola, the peruvian drink that sells
more than Coca-cola in this country.

It tastes like someone melted bubble gum and added sugar on top.

Finally we made it to Sacsayhuaman, the last ruins going down.

They're huge and generously sprinkled with gringos.

Luckily we arrived when every tour group was leaving.

 Also the sun was setting and Chey was in shorts, so we didn't stay for too long.

On the way to the road where we took the local bus again, we saw a freshly married couple having a photoshoot with a huge white Jesus statue in the background (we didn't take photos of the Big Jesus, our bad).

Based on what we saw many times in Peru, a good amount of people seem to get married fairly old, and they usually look very serious, almost grim, when they're having their picture taken. I found it mysterious.

It was altogether a great day of ruin exploring.

 (stay tuned for our next TRA Cusco edition post, where I'll bomb you with cute animal photos and talk about my favorite subject: FOOD!)