After a couple more days in Arequipa post-Colca:
We got a night-bus to Cusco:
It was a surprisingly bumpy ride and neither of us slept well from all the rattling and shaking despite being on main roads. A mystery. Thankfully we happened to get a room upgrade at our next hostel to a private bathroom and got in a couple of hours early to get settled.
We chose this hostel as it had a kitchen so we could start making our own food and save some pennies. It turns out that saving money on some mystery plastic-wrapped sausages wasn’t worth it as neither of us could figure out how they should be cooked or eaten (or at least without just looking like ground-up pink sludge squeezed out into a lump). James did a great job with the rest though and it was nice to have a ‘home-cooked meal’ after so much eating out.
That evening the hostel had a free pisco sour making class which we went to, and were the only ones. Seemed the hostel was rather empty! Nevertheless, Eduardo slowly and clearly showed us the ratio of 1 egg-white, 2 parts pisco, 1 part jarabe, 1 part lime-juice to make a really refreshing drink. He went back to his duties and we stayed chatting to another worker there called Washington. We learnt a lot from him about Cusqueñan life, guinea-pigs (now getting tinned and exported!), potatoes, agriculture, Inca empire history and rules (don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t be lazy), and a lot more besides. After a fantastic chance history lesson from Washington, we headed out for pizza, happy hour pisco sours, and a huge causa acevichado.
Our second day was free walking tour day. We learnt more about the history of Cusco, its people, the culture, the buildings, the conquest, and what was lost. Our guide made a great point that people come to Peru for Machu Picchu, but Cusco (Qosqo) was the centre of the empire, and if it still stood as it was, it would be more impressive and expansive than the acropolis. Just one tangible example of what has been lost due to colonialism. We’ve been to three of these walking tours now (Lima, Arequipa, Cusco) by Incan Milkyway and they’ve each given us a fascinating snippet into different aspects of Peruvian history.
After our tour, we got our new staple meal of pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken) and chicha. We also got stuffed avocado, and had so much we got it to take away (with extra chips and sauce!). That evening we went up to a viewpoint over the city to watch the sunset:
And then headed to Paddy’s Irish bar for a bit of gringo respite. We lucked out with a seat overlooking the square:
Before heading back for leftover polleria dinner at the hostel, to try for an early night before our 3:45am wake-up call to go to Vinicunca (Rainbow mountain) the next day.
Alex
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Adventure – James cooking a meal without setting fire to himself or the hostel, wandering around the backstreets avoiding touts, discovering a random dance-troup flash-mob in the main square
Excitement – meeting smiley, wonderful people in the food market, James buying coca leaves and stuffing his face, getting extra chips and sauce for takeaway
Trauma – constantly getting heckled to buy a massage, tour, food, shoe-shined…, Starbucks/KFC/McDonalds housed in original empire buildings on the main square, mystery meat sausages
3 Comments
There was a mysterious little sausage called Baldrick
you got the gringo recipe. Works out much better (imho) with 3 parts pisco, 1 part lime juice and 0.75 parts jarabe (don’t have to be exact, just a tad less than 1). Also Tio Pato’s special touch: divide the pisco measure in equal parts acholado and equal parts italia.
If you’re feeling brave, you can do a “catedral” which is 4 parts pisco – staple of the English bar at the Country Club hotel
Safe travels cuz!
Oooo thanks cuz, we’ll definitely be needing the stronger version once we’re back in the UK!