The week I had in Peru earlier this month was a real adventure - every day was filled with incredible places and experiences. It took quite a bit of time and effort to organise the trip, so I feel really happy that it all went to plan, and I got to discover all the sights I'd dreamed of seeing. There's going to be several blog posts to cover all the different parts of the trip, but I'm going to start with this one about Cusco, which was my main base for the week.
Cusco is the capital of the region of the same name, and was also the main city in the Inca empire, which covered a territory across the whole of Peru, and parts of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. It was one of the places I was most looking forward to visiting during my trip, because of its history and architecture - many of the old Inca structures still remain in the city, and there are also plenty of elaborate buildings from the colonial era too.
In the early evening on the first day of my trip, I arrived at my hotel, Ayenda Estancia San Pedro, which is located in a traditional building built around a courtyard. I really liked this hotel, as it had all the comforts of a modern hotel but also the unique charm you get from some hostels.
Shortly after arriving, I went out to find somewhere to eat and ended up nearly getting run over a couple of times trying to use zebra crossings. The streets were absolutely chaotic - full of the noise of various buskers, people selling things, and cars beeping their horns - and in general, the rules of the road (such as pedestrians having the right of way at zebra crossings) were completely ignored.
But on the other hand, the architecture of the city was even more beautiful than I'd expected - there was an ornate church or old building on every street, including Iglesia de San Pedro, which was just a few metres from my hotel.
For my supper, I had a very nice avocado salad and a fruit smoothie at Parada Vegana. It was definitely appreciated after a day of living off mostly crisps and biscuits on planes and in airports! And I also loved how pretty it looked with the edible flowers on top!
The next morning I woke up bright and early, ready for a morning of exploring the city on foot before going on a guided tour in the afternoon. (One of the nice things about coming to Peru from Chile is that there's a two-hour time difference, but not much difference in terms of longitude, so the sun rises and sets much earlier, making it really easy to get up and go to bed early.)
First I went to the tourist information centre on Avenida El Sol to buy the Boleto Turístico Integral: this costs 130 soles (around 32 dollars) and is required if you want to visit the different archaeological sites in Cusco and the surrounding area. The ticket lasts for 10 days and gives you entry to 16 different sites: four of which are on the outskirts of the city itself and which I visited during the guided tour of Cusco I took. There are also another four sites which I visited during the Sacred Valley and Maras & Moray tours I did on subsequent days. The other eight sites include a couple of archaeological sites some distance away and some museums in Cusco, which I didn't find the time to visit. But overall, I feel like seeing eight incredible Inca sites for 32 dollars was pretty good value.
After buying my ticket, I went to Plaza de Armas, the city's main square and one of its most iconic sites, thanks to its two grand churches, Catedral de Cusco and Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús. The square is huge and very well looked after - Peru in general does an excellent job of looking after its public spaces, which is something my boyfriend Claudio and I noticed during our trip to the city of Tacna in the far south of the country in June this year.
Then I had a very tasty lunch of vegan ceviche at Avocado restaurant. It was made with avocado and mango, which I wasn't expecting to like, because usually I'm not too keen on fruit in savoury dishes, but it was really nice! I also had a smoothie with avocado in, which I liked a lot, as a big avocado fan!
Then at 13:00, it was finally time for the city tour! I booked this tour through Denomades, a South American tour provider, and only spent 38 dollars in total on the three tours that I did, two of which were several hours long (Cusco and Maras & Moray) and one of which was a full day (Sacred Valley). So it was really great value!
The Cusco tour started at the cathedral, which we had to pay 25 soles to enter (a bit more than 6 dollars). The interior of the cathedral is really breathtaking - it's very opulent and is almost completely covered in gold. Photography is not allowed, so I tried my best to really take it all in so that I could keep it in my memory for the future!
The cathedral has many religious paintings, including a depiction of the Last Supper. Our guide explained that the indigenous artists were banned from practicing their religions, but they managed to include small references to it in their paintings which went undetected by the Spanish colonisers.
It was a beautiful and fascinating place to visit, as was the next stop along the tour: Koricancha, which cost 15 soles to enter (a little under 4 dollars).
Koricancha is also known as Coricancha, Qorikancha and Qurikancha, and was the most important temple of the Inca empire. The Spanish built the Santo Domingo convent on top of it, but there is still quite a lot of the original structure remaining.
The walls were made using the technique of cutting stones so they fit together exactly, which is how you know that it was an important building, as the Incas used mud and bricks to build the walls of non-important buildings. Inside you can see some of the old rooms of the temple, a model of how it used to look, and a replica of a gold artwork dedicated to the sun god, Inti. You can also look out over Jardín Sagrado (sacred garden) just below the temple.
I actually came back to Jardín Sagrado two days later on a free afternoon, as I wanted to see Koricancha from the front. It was really nice to sit there and soak in the history of the place.
After looking around Koricancha, it was time to get in the minibus to go and visit the archaeological sites around the edge of Cusco, starting with Sacsayhuamán citadel. This is the largest of the four sites we visited, and is known for its huge stones. As it happens, I spent a fair amount of our free time at this site trying to locate the bathroom, so I didn't really explore it in its entirety, but these things happen!
