Coming Down in Cusco (Molly)

I'm going to make a very bold statement - if you're travelling to Peru with limited time, skip Cusco. Before leaving, we read in one travel guide that Cusco was 'nearly at saturation point' from tourism, and I think by the time we arrived, it had tipped.

In its favour: Cusco is beautiful. It was the hub of resistance to Spanish rule by the Incas. The streets are lined with half falling-down, half resurrected colonial buildings, with wildly ornate street signs and traffic lights. The mirrored church is lovely, and unlike any of the others we had seen. 

We stayed only one night, just outside of the city centre, in a very friendly, locally run hostel in the gateway between safe and slightly dodgy neighbourhoods. We had breakfast with a couple from the UK, he produced documentaries and she analysed ecological footprints. Not easy in a city where rubbish and plastic water bottles are piled high. No doubt Peruanos generate less waste per person, but it is kept more out of sight in our highly cleansed life in NZ.

Highlights:

The local market, always worth the trip. Also a good source of jugo de fresa (strawberry juice), cheeses marked by region, and enormous bread wheels.

I indulged in my love of taking photos of doorways and windows. A small selection here, most of the ground floor and stone doorways are original Incan, while the second stories and grillwork are Spanish.

Morena restaurant. Another Peruvian fusion meal (yes, with quinoa) and a pisco sour. For the uninitiated, the pisco sour is Peru's national drink. A bit of pisco alcohol, made from pisco, as the base lime juice, syrup, ice, Angostura bitters, plus some frothed egg whites - heavenly. Mine came gilded with a flower.

On the last afternoon, we found San Blas, a lovely artists' district just up the hill from the main square, and a bit quieter than town. We sat all afternoon at Siete & Siete (located between the streets Siete Angelitos and Siete Diablitos, Seven Angels and Seven Devils), sipping Cusqueno beer shandies and admiring the view. I guess Cusco wasn't so bad.

Traveller tips:

We managed to avoid almost all signs of altitude sickness through a) taking pills, and b) working our way up slowly from Machu Picchu Pueblo to Ollantaytambo to Cusco, at 3,400 metres (11,200 feet). This plan was based on other blog posts and worked a treat. The most we got was tingly fingertips, which was a funny sensation, and the normal breathlessness when climbing stairs.

Spend more time in San Blas and less in the city centre. Or skip Cusco, as the combination of Lima, Ollantaytambo and Arequipa will give you the same colonial and Incan heritage without the crowds.