Peru Day 1
And we are off to South America! |
| Plaza De Armas in Lima |
The pink dots are the regions that we did in this trip. We barely did 4 out of 25 regions in the country yet it felt so diverse.
For future references, Lima is at sea level. Cusco and Puno is around 3300 meters while Arequipa and Machu Picchu (MP) is around 2300 meters. And you do feel the high altitude acutely above 3000 meters while still manageable around 2300 meters.
In our trip we saw travelers go from Lima to Arequipa before flying to Cusco to acclimate better.
We won't have changed our trip as MP is the focus. But it's good to know how to plan our trips to other higher altitudes next time.
Lima is the only international airport in Peru as of May 2026. During our trip Arequipa and Sacred Valley both indicated interest in an international airport but infrastructure is so lacking that I'm doubtful.
We took Copa Airline, which flew into Lima with a stopover at Panama. Then we flew from Lima to Cusco which made a 16 hour travel day with all the stopover. Cusco is the only practical airport to access Machu Pichu (MP).
We had a 3 hours layover and it gave us time to take a break and have lunch in Lima airport
Cusco is a typical place to stage and plan Sacred valley and MP. Flying in, we can see the town in the mountains with a narrow air strip!
Our hotel in Cusco is Tambo del Arriero boutique hotel for 3 nights. It's a couple of blocks from the main plaza with a reasonable cost of $100 a night. It's also very close to the office of the trek company.
We plan our last night in Cusco to go back to the same hotel so that we can leave the majority of our luggage with them and not bring to MP.
Side note: Ollantaytambo is the town to get the train to the start of the hike and it's 2 hours minimum from Cusco. So it makes the hiking day a 3am pickup day. You can plan to stay in Ollantaytambo instead and get a 6am pick up. But it means you will need at least 2 days worth of overnight clothes plus hiking clothes and plan out the logistics of leaving your luggage with the trek company office.
The hotel has great service. All Cuzco hotel seems to include breakfast and travelers are given a lunch box when you have to miss breakfast due to the 3 to 6am pick up for MP, Sacred Valley and Rainbow mountain. We only made it to one day of regular breakfast out of the days that we stayed there!
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| Our Hotel courtyards |
We had some altitude sickness pills. All hotels in the highland provide coca leaf to help with the altitude. We both felt fine when we landed. But just in case, we had a cup before settling in for the night. We were both exhausted from the long trip and didn't feel like getting dinner.
Peru Day 2 Cusco City
Cusco is known as the city before MP =) But after this trip, i realized it's really more than a stop gap city.
During the Inca time, it's the hub of the Inca empire, and a central fork to go into 4 cardinal directions, reaching Bolivia, Eucuador etc.
It's a official Unesco World Heritage site and hold the Saqsaywaman and foundation stones of Qorikancha (Temple of the sun)
Ps: The recommendation is to take it easy for at least a day to get acclimated with no alcohol. .
But that's not possible for our schedule
We walked out to the plaza de armas and there a full parade going on. Had fun watching all the locals walking around the square with horses and bands.
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| Plaza de Armas Cusco |
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| Colorful Horses in the parade |
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| Plaza De Armas |
It took us a while to get through the square. Then we head to the Church and Convent of Santo Domingo that is also built on top of the Inca Sun temple.
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| View of the museum that has the temple site |
Once we started climbing the steps, we can feel the altitude . I can barely climb for 10 mins and I'm struggling to catch my breath!
We took our time making our way to the cathedral
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| Cusco Catherdral with the last supper showing a guinea pig |
We stop at cute stores to buy souvenirs including a chocolate shop.
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| Cacao tasting store |
We slowly made our way to the mirador to see the city
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| City Mirador view point |
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| The City of Cusco |
Around the Mirador we stop at View Point Restaurant for a drink and ceviche
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| Cute drinks, priceless view |
We stop at Calle Siete Borreguitos with the aquaduct and the white washed walls
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| Calle Siete |
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| More sites and one of the 7 lambs! |
All of this is us slowly making our way to the Inca ruins Saqsaywaman in Cusco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacsayhuam%C3%A1n
The link has the significance of this fortress. It's clear the stone walls are so well built
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| Saqsaywaman ruins |
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| View of Cusco from the ruins |
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| Roaming alpacas at Saqsaywaman |
On our way back to the hotel, we stop at the trekking company to grab our duffel bag for MP overnight.
Dinner that night we picked Chicha por Gaston Acurio. He's Peru's most famous celebrity chef in promoting Peruvian food to the world.
We did their tasting menu that included 7 dishes, 2 cocktails, 3 Peruvian wines, water and coffee for $125 that's all inclusive.
The first dish was a alpaca carpaccio, followed by a guinea pig taco. A rice dish with mushroom and scrambled egg, grilled trout with local potatos, hot stone of quinoa and beef ribs. Followed by 2 dessert, one is a palette cleanser and a really complex Chocolate and Lucuma mousse served in a chocolate husk. We also had Chicha sour as a cocktail which is a good introduction to chicas in Peru.
What I like about this menu is it's really well thought out and executed. And it gives a very interesting twist to Peruvian highland food like Alpaca and guinea pig but in a totally different way. For eg it's not common that alpaca meat is eaten raw due to parasite concerns. And the "cuy" guinea pig had a black corn tortilla and done in a chinese peking duck style wrap except with guinea pig. And the quinoa is done in hot stone bibambap style
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| The dishes in Chicha |
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| Tasting menu in Chicha |
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