The Tasting Menu of Peru

We barely scratched the surface.

We landed at the Lima airport around 5:30 in the morning. Somebody from the travel agency picked us up from the airport and drove us to our hotel in Miraflores, one of Lima’s 43 districts. There was a bike store nearby that gave short guides of the city so we decided to attend the 9:30 tour. Fortunately we were able to check in to the hotel early and have breakfast. We had just taken a red eye so the bike tour would’ve been much harder without food and coffee.

The bike tour started from a store called GOGO Biking – Miraflores. The guide’s name was Kral and the group was composed of 8 tourists. The attendees came from all over. There was one couple from Germany, one person from Michigan, one person from New Zealand, one from NYC, and one from Amsterdam.

The first stop in the bike tour was The Parque del Amor. This was a really pretty park. The featured statue is of a couple kissing on the pedestal. The surrounding trees were cool and there were beautiful flowers everywhere.

The second stop on the bike tour was Letonia Park. I didn’t take many pictures of this one but it was pretty as well. We stayed there for only a few minutes.

The third stop (left) was at the Federalo Villareal Park.

The fourth stop, Monumento al Soldado Desconocido, involved a bit of a climb. When we booked the tour through Trip Advisor, we noticed that many of the reviews complained of this particular hill. Initially I thought it may be because some people aren’t in that great of shape but it proved to be a real climb.

The final stop (before returning to the bike store) was at the Municipal de Barranco Park. We stopped at a bar for a drink. There was this statue made out of cardboard with some cones in front of it.

It was a fun time but the best part is that we walked away with new friends. We found the girl from New Zealand, Alice, was going to be in Puno at the same time as us. We had dinner with her both nights. It also came out that Chris, the guy from Michigan, is running the Tokyo marathon like Carolyn.

Plaza De San Martin

These were taken during a walking tour of downtown Lima. It’s a very lively city with quite a few tourist attractions. The first stop was at a pretty church that I forgot the name of. I ended up getting left behind for a bit at the church because I was taking pictures. I didn’t notice everyone had left.

The Restaurants – Central and then Astrid and Gaston

The tasting menus were cool but admittedly fancy dishes are lost on me. I still don’t really understand wine pairing either.

Day 3: Cusco, the First Day in Altitude

We flew from Lima to Cusco on Friday. Cusco sits at about 3,399 meters or 11,000 feet above sea level. Since neither of us had been in altitude before, we expected to feel terrible. Initially I felt fine but was sure to stay hydrated. I put nuun tablets in my water bottle or simply mixed water and gatorade for most of the trip. I think that saved me most of the time. Anyway, the drive from the airport to the textiles shop was beautiful. Having grown up on the east coast of the US, I’d never seen such mountains.

The Textiles Shop about halfway between Urubamba and Cusco.

The woman in the top left picture showed us around the gallery. There were so many colorful wall pieces. I ended up buying a piece of wall art and a sweater for my mother. The best part about stopping here was the alpaca and the young kids. The child pictured on the bottom left here is the person above’s daughter. She kept trying to speak Spanish to me and handing me mint leaves.

After playing around at the textiles place, the driver took us to Urubamba

Urubamba

We got to the hotel close to sunset and took quite a few pictures. The hotel had this beautiful garden and sat at the base of some mountains.

Day 4: Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is pretty remarkable. The tour guide was very knowledgeable on the history and was sure to take our one mile hike very slow. There are a couple of ways to get to the top of Machu Picchu. The easiest way being the train. There is also the 4 day hike on the Inca Trail. The third option is to start the hike at the base of the mountain, which takes about 6 hours. Our tour group was only doing one short day on Machu Picchu so we took the train. Our tour guide said he used to do the 4 days of the Inca trail 6 times a month.

The man pictured in the bottom left was Antonio and he and his wife were from Spain. On the train, we had a chance to discuss the Camina de Santiago. The Camina de Santiago is the pilgrimage from various points in Spain (there are multiple start points) to Santiago. I intend to do it one of these years but it turns out Antonio has 3 completed it three times.

Day 5: The Sacred Valley Tour

The main stops on the tour were the Ollantaytambo Inca Ruins and Chinchero. They are both really pretty and it was a good intro to altitude. We would literally be out of breathe at the end of 10 stairs. It did make me nervous about going to the Rainbow Mountain the next day. There was another textile shop where they showed us how they dyed the alpaca yarn and such.

Day 6: Rainbow Mountain and Trying Cuy

The two couples from Toronto decided to skip the Cusco tour and hike Rainbow Mountain. We decided to join them because it seemed way more exciting. Though I do plan to return to and spend more time in Cusco. I was alright in altitude for the most part. I drank nuun tablets and gatorade/water mixtures the whole time. The hike was to 16000ft so I was a little nervous given how out of breathe I’d become walking in 13,000ft. Anyway, the road getting there was a bit windy and bumpy so we were warned about motion sickness. I don’t think anyone got sick but I recall a few took dramamine. I didn’t know dramamine was a drowsy drug either yet so I’m glad I didn’t take it. It would’ve made the hike much harder. The hike was only 5 miles total but it took all of 5 hours. We would take maybe 20-30 steps at a time and stop to catch our breathe. There were people selling snacks and water along the way which helped. Hikers could also hire a horse to take them to the base of the climb.

The view at the top is absolutely beautiful. It took me a minute to catch my breathe but just looking around was awesome. I wish we got to do the rest and see the red valley but this hike was definitely worth the effort. Also the two couples from Toronto are my parent’s age so even more impressive for them to have done so. The way down I could tell some people in my group were really struggling. By the end I did have a headache myself but nothing more thankfully. No nausea or passing out.

Afterwards we went to a restaurant known for guinea pig. Roasted guinea pigs (pictured bottom right if you’re on a desktop) are common in Peru. I didn’t particularly like the meat myself but the others seemed to enjoy it. It’s worth trying for sure while you’re there.

The drive from Cusco to Puno was very pretty. We stopped at a church, some places for food, coffee and textiles. It was a long, 10ish hour bus ride but it was well worth it. When we got to Puno, we met up with Alice and her friend Christine for dinner. It was a nice coincidence that the person we met on the bike tour was going to be in Puno the same days as us. We also happened upon the 354th anniversary of Puno. There were groups of dancers performing in the city square. Their outfits were pretty neat. I had fun photographing them. Then the next day there were parades all day as part of the celebration. We turned in pretty early because of the altitude (Puno is a bit higher than Cusco) and we were really tired.

Day 8: Lake Titicaca

Day 9: Return to Lima