Cusco is Magical at night
Day No. 1:
So, we flew from Juliaca to Cusco, short flight, the hotel sent a taxi for us and the driver gave us a lot of pointers to make our visit as pleasant as possible, we really were desperate to get to our hotel because we were over 24 hours without a shower and after the hike the previous afternoon and all our injuries and bruises we really needed one. We stayed in a very cute hotel within walking distance from the main plaza, after cleaning up and organized our luggage we took our dirty clothing next door to get it washed, they even delivered to the hotel that night. We left the hotel at around 4pm and walked to the plaza where we were able to exchange money, then found a nice balcony restaurant to have a fantastic dinner. Alpaca! It was fantastic! the service, the food, the view, the music….
Our cool hats, and the things Bryan does for love!
The historical center is absolutely breath taking, the lighting at night made it so beautiful to photograph and I’m very grateful w/ Bryan for helping me carry the tripod all over. I was really emotional because since I was in 3rd grade I always wanted to come to Cusco and Machu Pichu, I leaned about it in a project that I put together in school and since then it was number one in my bucket list, it just took me 38 years to get here, for Bryan was kind of the same, he always wanted to come, so we truly enjoy walking around like 2 little kids in a candy store, the colonial architecture mixed with the indigenous made the city an absolute jewel. Everywhere you go (inside the historical downtown) the facades are perfectly preserved, they follow the same ‘rules’ as many ‘magical towns’ in Mexico that UNESCO has declared “patrimonio de la humanidad’ they have a rigorous color pallet and even a few fonts for labels and signages for every store, restaurant… even McDonalds and KFC, the craftmanship of the balconies around the plaza is stunning and there are no bad views from any of them. As an architect I enjoy the experience like nothing I had travel before.
Alpaca stake and cilantro rise, best meal of the trip!
Terrace looking at Cusco’s Main Plaza
In this post we are just talking about Cusco to not get all over the place with the narratives, we divided our visit to Cusco in 2 days with a day through the Secret Valley and a day in Machu picchu in between; the following is day number 2 in Cusco:
Day No. 2:
We arrived like around 11pm from Machu Picchu, and were more than tired, the train ride was nice, gave us time to write and relax for a bit (1.45hr trip), then we took the bus from Ollantaytambo to Cusco, that took 2 hours, we just sleep all the way. Side note: Incarail has a ticket back from Macchu Picchu to Cusco that includes the bus ride from Ollyantatambo (there are no direct train rides to Cusco).
Anyway, got to our hotel from the bus stop in taxi (6 soles) and sleep, next morning we both had body aches but ready for the next, so got breakfast, shower etc.… and started walking (again). (Side note: We were also preparing for our trip to the amazon the following day and we needed to take the anti-malaria pills, the day before we took 1 pill, and everything was good, this day we took 2 pills hopping for the best).
Alpaca in Cusco’s Market
In our previous day in Cusco we explored one half of the historic district, we planned that way so we could explore the second half the following day, and so we did started in the San Blass neighborhood and walked our way back to the main plaza, crossed it and walk all the way to the local market, and then around to the main plaza from another route, the day was wonderful, a little cloudy and it seems that was going to rain so we carry w/ our rain jackets in the backpack; we had lunch in the San Blass square in a little restaurant and we had pizza, but not any regular pizza but Alpaca ham margarita pizza, I don’t remember if I mention that we forbid ourselves to eat ‘regular-for-us’ food but local dishes and experience their cuisine, so we allowed ourselves w/ pizza only because was Alpaca, honestly was delicious, Bryan ordered a Pisco and I order a Limonada as drinks. the bill was not bad, and the environment was lovely, they made the pizza in a wood fire pizza oven and of course the flavors of the wood are all over the pizza, how to describe this…’Fantastic’!
Pizza in Cusco
We are really not going to suggest any specific place to eat, because for that we needed to stay in Cusco for days and days and experience most places and their food, what we can suggest is this: walk around, follow your nose and when you find that place that your stomach says ‘let’s try here’ walk in and enjoy, there are dozens of cool places to eat traditional, nontraditional, and everything in between in Cusco.
Just follow your nose!
After lunch we kept walking, however our stomachs were starting to feel bad, we assumed was something about our lunch but as it turns out was the malaria pills side effects, Bryan only got a mild stomach ache but I got ‘the whole enchilada’!!! as we made our way to the market and back to the main plaza it was time to have dinner, we figure than after we eat everything was going to be ok (well….not for me!! ☹), we tried another restaurant in the second floor with a wonderful balcony setting and fantastic view of the main plaza, we order the ‘Lomo a la Parrilla’ absolutely delicious however I couldn’t finish my food (Bryan finished his and mine) I was feeling horrible, apparently my ‘Mexican-stomach’ is more delicate than Bryan’s ‘American-stomach’ he says he has a goat stomach, and believe me … he does! We left the restaurant in a hurry because I was dying for God sake! in the hotel I drank like 2 litters of hot Muna tea to fix my stomach and I was glued to the bathroom for hours LOL!!! That between the pain in my ribs and my stomach pain and the ‘bathroom-situation’ I had a horrible night!… but my ‘Goat’ slept like a baby…
