After three days in Lima, a couple days in Ollantaytambo and a day at Machu Picchu (you can catch up in my blog posts Part 1 and Part 2!) we ended our trip with four days in Cusco. Surrounded by hills on all sides, at more than 11,000 feet above sea level, it’s really beautiful. We stayed in the bohemian, artsy district of San Blas, which was full of steep inclines (so we got our workout in every day, especially with the altitude!) and narrow cobblestone streets. The historic downtown was full of grand Spanish colonial-style buildings with balconies overlooking plazas.
We saw a similar festival in Cusco as we did in Ollantaytambo, with costumes, parades and dances. This one was gearing up to Inti Raymi, the annual Incan festival honoring the sun god. So the city was in full party mode the whole time we were there.
Overall Impressions
Cusco is a tourist hotspot—it has about 500,000 residents, but more than 4.5 million tourists annually, according to a tour guide we had. I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere so focused on tourism. On one hand, the touristy aspect was kind of frustrating, because you can’t walk around downtown without being offered a massage or someone promoting a restaurant.
But on the other hand, because there are so many tourists, there are tons of cool places to shop, eat and drink. These maybe aren’t the most authentic places, and a lot aren’t even Peruvian (there are tons of expats in the city), but they are convenient! There was any type of food you could want within a 10-minute walk, and we had the best empanadas ever there. (Sorry, Argentina!)
Cusco Day by Day
Four days to explore Cusco was more than enough. There are a lot of day trips that run from Cusco, to see more ruins or go on hikes, so it’s a good base if you want to do that. However, we opted for a more relaxing time. Here’s how we filled it.
Day One
After spending the night at the cutest hostel, La Boheme, which was also a French creperie (which may or may not have factored into our decision to stay there), we started off with a free walking tour of the historic downtown, using the same company we used in Lima, Inkan Milky Way. Gotta love a good free walking tour!
That evening, we went to the Cusco Planetarium. It’s a small, family-run operation. They let you actually look at stars with a telescope, which was the highlight! They also teach you about Incan astronomy. (Fun fact: Apparently the Incas thought there was a llama in the Milky Way!) It was definitely something fun and different to do, and you could tell that the owners are clearly passionate about it!
Day Two
The main event on our second day was going to a workshop at the ChocoMueso, where we got to make a chocolate bar from the bean! There are a bunch of ChocoMuseo locations throughout Peru and other countries in South and Central America that produce chocolate. It was a little cheesy, yes, but it was really interesting to learn about the whole chocolate-making process and we honestly had a really fun time! Plus, we got to try lots of chocolate.
Day Three
This was a pretty leisurely day. We tried some local fruits at the market and popped into a few of the museums, since we had time to kill and could get in for free with a tourist ticket we already had. The regional history museum had two floors of exhibits and was interesting enough. The popular art museum was essentially an exhibit in a basement, but it had really cool photos of Cusco in the early 1900s!
We also did some souvenir shopping, because apparently you can’t leave Peru without buying some kind of knit sweater, hat, blanket or socks with llamas on them. Trying to be a bit more conscious about where we were spending our money, we did some of our shopping at the Awana Wasinchis Fair Trade Store. I’d definitely recommend it, and the woman who worked there was super nice. Justin also bought a charango, an instrument that originated in the Andes, from Sabino Huaman. Huaman handmakes instruments including the charangos, guitars and more. Justin had a lot of fun jamming with him!
Day Four
On our last day in Cusco, we decided to hike to some Incan ruins around the city, an idea I got from this helpful blog. (There are some other ruins around Cusco that we could’ve done with a group tour, but we decided at that point we were almost ruined-out, so it wouldn’t be worth sitting in a car for hours. This way, we had a nice little hike, too!)
We took a taxi up to the highest ruins, called Tambomachay, which were possibly Incan baths. Then we walked down to Puca Pucara (a fort) and Qenqo (a site for rituals and sacrifices—kind of spooky!). We even got a bit off the beaten path and encountered some unexpected ruins (Templo de La Luna), which was cool because there was barely anyone else there. Saving the best for last, the final site we visited was Sacsayhuaman, a giant fortress overlooking the city.
Overall, this little adventure took us about five hours. It was a nice way to get some history and enjoy the scenery!
This was a fun last day in Peru, and the next morning we headed back to Buenos Aires! Overall, it was a great trip and I’d love to go back and explore more parts of the country.
So, that’s it for Peru! My next blog post will be about a long weekend trip we took a couple weeks later, to the Northwest Argentina provinces of Salta and Jujuy for some vino and salt flats!