Cusco is beautiful. I mean really, picture-book, postcard, tourism advertisement beautiful. I stayed in a hostel a little ways up the hill next to the Plaza de Armas, the main square, with a terrace that looked out across the city. It’s all spanish tile roofs, narrow cobblestone streets, and giant, impressive red cathedrals, surrounded on all sides by mountains. The Mercado San Pedro, the main market, is chock full of sights and smells – every part of every dead animal you can imagine (no lie, I saw a guy pull up and unload a station wagon piled full of just cow heads, tongues cartoonishly sticking out the sides of their mouths), sections of dried fruits and nuts, brightly colored fruit and vegetable stands, handicrafts, and more. There are tons of cute little plazas everywhere you go, and the city is surrounded on all sides by mountains. I was really swept away by the visual when I arrived and am thinking hard about going back – I didn’t even make it to the famous ruins of the sacred valley! I did have the luck of stumbling onto a food fair on the Sunday that I was there, and I got to try Cuy, the famous guinea pig that’s eaten here. It was… meaty, I didn’t find it spectacular one way or the other, but it was also unfortunately cold since it had been prepared early for this food fair. I’ll be trying it again sometime.
The reason I didn’t see the ruins around Cusco is because I was in a hurry to get to Huancayo and start volunteering and I had my heart set on doing the Salkantay trek up to Machu Picchu beforehand. The Inca Trail is the famous trek to Machu Picchu but it has significant drawbacks – it costs upwards of $500 and you have to reserve 6-9 months in advance. This was obviously going to be impossible for me and so I had resigned myself to just taking a bus out to Machu Picchu rather than doing a trek. Somewhere along the way, though, people had told me about the Salkantay, which is a less-traveled but still gorgeous route up to Machu Picchu, and which can be reserved just the day before for $160-230, depending on whether or not you want to take the train back. This turned out to be a great decision.
The treks up to Machu Picchu are a deluxe affair. There are horses to carry your stuff, porters that run ahead to set up the tents, and cooks to whip up full meals. Our guide, Hilton, was delightfully laid back, often smirking as he delivered silly jokes in an accented drawl. And the scenery, especially on the first two days, when you trek in the shadow of Salkantay mountain, is spectacular. After that, as you drop to lower elevation, the vegetation changes dramatically, with temperatures rising and brightly colored flowers popping out everywhere. Hot springs at Santa Teresa were a highlight, and the famous 2 hour walk along the train tracks from Hidroelectrica to Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu, was a delightful, peaceful stroll through tropical vegetation. After that we had a bit of time to check out Aguas Calientes before hitting the hay earlier so as to get up and out the door by 4:30 to climb the thousands of steps up to the ruins. I worked up quite a sweat… Machu Picchu itself is impressive – it’s a huge complex of ruins on top of a sizable mountain, and the work that must have gone into building it boggles the mind. To me, what really puts it over the top is the surrounding scenery, all towering peaks completely covered in dark green tropical vegetation. It’s stunning, and we got especially good luck, with clear skies for sunrise followed by a rush of fog as the rising temperatures sent the clouds that had been down in the valley shooting skyward. I walked through the ruins, hiked out to the Sun Gate, where you get a beautiful faraway view, and strolled out a little ways to look at the Inca bridge. It was really a great day, even if the 6 hour ride back to Cusco was… uncomfortable.
Back in Cusco I called it an early night since I had been up since 4am. The next day I had a delicious, giant, American-style breakfast at a place called Jack’s and then went to the San Pedro market to get some snacks and stroll around. At 6pm I had the first leg of my trip to Huancayo – a 21 hour bus ride to Lima. I splurged on an extra-wide, extra-reclining seat on one of the nicer bus companies, which was a good decision, but the first many hours of the trip are all hairpin turns winding through the mountains so it’s hard to sleep no matter what the seat is like. I got in to Lima around 3pm and had until 11:45pm before my 7 hour bus ride to Huancayo so I took a walk down to Miraflores, a beautiful neighborhood by the sea that’s popular with tourists. A fancy club with loads of clay tennis courts right in the middle of the city caught my eye, as did the Parque del Amor (park of love – come on, you knew that…). After seeing the sunset through the gigantic statue of a couple making out at the Parque del Amor – by myself, so sad – I splurged on a delicious seafood dinner and then headed back to the bus. Lima isn’t known as one of the culinary capitals of South America for nothing, and I’m excited about going back for some more food before I fly to New York. The 7 hour bus ride to Huancayo was uneventful – I slept the entire time – and I haven’t had much trouble settling in here. I’ll be back soon with an update on life here in the Mantaro Valley!
A Phil Abroad 
Ahh Phil – this leg of your adventure is a travel guide out of Master and Commander! The pictures were
Fabulous – the plants, steep mountains and ruins. How do those llamas (?) get around up there?
I would love to have been there for the “tourist” shots! Hope you can go back!
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