Cuzco

We were all pretty tired from our time in Machu Picchu. Shad was also recovering from a really bad bout of food poisoning from an empanada that he ate on our last afternoon there. Until now, we’ve been doing really well with the food in all the places that we’ve been to. None of us have been sick until now, but luckily Shad recovered very quickly. When we got to Cuzco, all we wanted to do was take it easy, visit a few major sights and just enjoy walking around the little town.

Of course we couldn’t miss Sacsayhuaman (Royal Eagle)” the ancient Inca fortress temple. 

Nature’s giant slide

This little one came flying down. Gave me quite a scare but she loved it!

And so did he!

Looking down at the fortress, which is made up of three large terraced walls, said to represent the “teeth of the jaguar”.

Tightly fitted stones

Some of the largest stones here are over 28feet high and are estimated to weigh over 120ton.

Jenga for giants. Hmm..which piece to remove?

That looks like a fairly safe choice.

Another very important historical site here is the Qorikancha, the most important temple in the Inca Empire which was dedicated to Inti, the Temple of the Sun. This temple was destroyed by the Spanish in the 16th century who built Santo Domingo Church over the ruins.

Perfectly fitted pieces, not even a thin piece of paper can fit between the pieces of stone. 

Inca Lego 

We hadn’t intended to go to the Mercadi San Pedro but I’m so glad we did. This was definitely a feast for the eyes. I always love walking through food markets, and also supermarkets, in any country we visit. While similar in many ways to any other big market in the world with fresh meat, vegetables, fruit, cooked food stalls, souvenir stalls, the types of produce sold here were so different from what we are used to. 

Cooked-food stalls, such interesting dishes - giant beef bones noodles, all kinds of fried fish, stews with rice, but we just weren’t quite brave enough to try them. 

Peruvians love their cheese.

A local snack, shortbread topped with hundreds and thousands just how someone likes it!

And of course the cactus, not sure if this particular one is for decorative purposes or can be eaten as a food. 

The Choco Museo... someone has been waiting all day for this. And so here we are, to learn about how chocolate is made.

Choosing the best cacao beans.

Cooking the beans.

Peeling the shell off the beans.

Grinding the beans into a paste.

* From here we skipped several steps since we didn’t have enough time to temper the chocolate and so on.

“Choco Tarik” Peruvian style! 

Taste test. More eating than making going on here! 

Would you like some chocolate with your smarties?!!

And how about some, actually tons of salt with your chocolate?!

Into the fridge they go! 

Cuzco is a very quaint town full of ancient historical sites. Despite being a main tourist destination, the place still has a special charm to it and we really enjoyed strolling around and walking through the narrow lanes. We had some very interesting meals here too, one which was excellent and the other, hmm... don’t think I’ll be eating that again 😣.

Main town square

We saw a lot of “Chifas” (chinese restaurants) in Peru but just weren’t game (desperate) enough to try them!

The streets were always buzzing with activity. 

Everywhere you turn, you see the beautiful hillside. 

Peruvian cuisine is very flavourful, strong and robust flavours and very well seasoned. We’ve really enjoyed the food that we ate here.

But this is one dish I don’t think we’ll be eating ever again. Mia was most upset, guinea pigs are too cute to be eaten she kept saying!

Peru was our first taste of South America and we absolutely loved every moment of our time here. The people are warm and kind, and while language was a barrier, we nonetheless managed to communicate, either through our bad Spanish or sign language or some splattering of English. Hopefully we will be able to come back to this beautiful country again.