Cusco & the South America roadtrip start

After 3 days in Peru, I start on Sunday 21st a 3 weeks roadtrip with G-Adventure to explore the key sites of Peru, Bolivia and North Chile.
The route embarks us from Cusco, ex-capital of the Inca civilization, and go through the classic Peru & Bolivia sites, before to reach North of Chile Atacama desert and fly down to Santiago.
Note: the trip is called "Southern Divide", details on: http://www.gadventures.com/trips/southern-divide/SMS/2013/?ref=asearch

I am meeting everyone on Sunday 21st early morning at Lima, as we fly from there to Cusco. The group sounds quite fun, with a good balance girls / boys, mostly Europeans: 2 Australians, 1 Canadian, 1 Japanese, 7 British, 1 German, 1 Dannish, 1 Irish, and of course, 1 French ;-)

We start our tour Sunday afternoon with the city of Cusco, at 3,300m high in the South East side of Peru. From the beginning, I had a good feeling being there, despite the altitude which takes few days to get used to.

The city, surrounded by mountains, mixes Inca & Christian history, with churches, museums and various monuments all over, introducing the fantastic Peruvian culture in a great way. The atmosphere of the city is also very good: relatively big but not too much (0.4 million inhabitants), touristic but with many locals around too, city center with restaurants and bars... it is easy to walk around, and the nightlife is very good. Net, spending few days there is easy, we had 4 nights and almost 3 full days, it was great.

The first glimpses & hike over the city immediately offered nice picture shots thanks to its buildings and mountains scenery.

A wall paint depicting classics Inca stories

Detail of a traffic-light & road-sign pillar: inca signs everywhere!

1st view of the central, and famous, Plaza de Armas

Crossing the city to walk up the hill behind Plaza de Armas, was quite challenging with the altitude, so we took some time and lost some on the way, but it was worth it: great views of the city, which looks bigger than expected, and the surrounding arid mountains around.

Cusco city view... with a kid playing a kite in the forefront

Close-up on the central Plaza de Armas, impressive even from here

A Christ is standing up above the city here: a must-do pic then

SAN PEDRO MARKET
On Monday, our tour-leader Dennis take few of us to the San Pedro market, which is for Peruvians by Peruvians... Clearly, you cannot find tourist handicrafts here, and this is even better to discover this colorful & vibrant place, showing well the way of life locals can have.

San Pedro market entrance

Meat booths: yes, it is 30°C outside, why do you worry about hygiene?

Fruit booth: cannot name all, so many new I had never seen

The Pan Chuta bread loafs: you can find everywhere with various flavors

Spices show-off

Flowers paradise

Potatoes: so many varieties!

Yes, when I say there are many Peruvian potatoes varieties, there are: more than 3,000!!

Side-note of potatoes (and as I have good friends growing some in Europe!)
I could not believe there were so many varieties over here, but it is true! Out of 5,000 worldwide, more than 3,000 can be found in Peru and the surrounding Andes, growing up to 4,000m high and more. This is why Lima holds the IPC, "International Potatoes Center"! Haven't visited it, but it might be worth to entertain discussions with my farmers friends :-)

Weird veggies & fruits juices tasting

Outside views from the market hall sides

The entrails isle... do that end up in the restaurants around the corner? oops 

PLAZA DE ARMAS
A visit to Cusco cannot avoid this famous plaza. Spending more time around it on Monday & Friday, I discover the great treasures it offers, as well as the good people-watching! Clearly, the ancient & actual city center is super lively, with church, cathedral, buildings and park.

An overview look of Plaza de Armas: on the left, the Cathedral; on the right the church

From visits of those key sites to just people-watching, you could spend a full day just here: shoe-cleaners, processions, various vendors of paintings or cheap souvenirs, restaurants, tourists taking pictures, drug dealers... well, there is always something to distract!

The Cathedral front, from the center of the plaza

The Cathedral of Santo Domingo is majestic, though as most of the Cusco (and Peruvian) christian sites, it was built over a inca temple / palace. Built over 400 years from the XVIth century, it is a very impressive site, with an amazing inside architecture, stunning paintings and gold altarpieces. No pictures allowed inside unfortunately.

A side-chapel front of the Cathedral

End of July holds Peru national-day, and Cusco is one of the main center to celebrate this. While not there during the exact day, I get lucky to see some processions to train for it. I cannot really explain... but great to watch, and it had something to do with celebrating saints, Mary & Inca dance! ;

On the side on the plaza, the other unmissable site to see is the Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesus.

Front of the church, with dome and side-chapel /temple view

Said to be one of the best colonial religious architecture, the church is shaped like a cross, has 2 towers, a big central dome and an amazing decoration inside. No pictures allowed either... you have to go ;)

Just around the plaza, buildings are nice to see as well, and add to the pleasant experience and feeling of walking around here:

Covent on the side of the church

Central inca statue

Not far from the Plaza de Armas, the Choco Museo was another delight, particularly for lunch after the San Pedro market!

Hidden on the 1st floor of a nice building over San Francisco plaza, the museum is more a shop offering multiple products based on chocolate, but also tells the history of it and links to the Inca & Aztec cultures.

They offer a great, free, chocolate based tea, very tasty and not heavy to drink at all, surprisingly.

The lunch we had was one of the heaviest I ever had: though I am a big fan of chocolate and eat a lot, I really reached a high limit eating a crepe filled with banana and chocolate and a brownie, while drinking a hot-chocolate milk, to which you could add paprika & honey as the inca were drinking it.

A pure choco-only lunch!

MUSEUMS

With a British friend, George, we were brave enough to visit part of the multiples museums that Cusco has, on top of the cathedral & church.  

The Inca Museum, while a bit dusty with a very poor lay-out and little explanation, was still interesting for novice like us (on South America history!) to discover  the different periods of the Inca and Spanish history in Peru / Andes. There is much more that I need to learn. 

The textiles museum, or Centro de textiles tradicionales, was free and just around the corner of a walk, so we entered. Nothing big, and this is more a small shop and exhibition dedicated to the art of weaving from the Cusco region. In nicer way than what you see on touristic booths outside, so it was worth the 15mn view ;). 

Front of the church

Qoricancha, or the Sun Temple, is another temple / fortress / church transformed now in museum to show how Spanish conquerors devastated then build their church on top of an inca temple. Also called Church and Convento de Santo Domingo, it contains both catholic and inca heritage, with paintings or part of the temple that can still be looked at.

Inside view of the convent

Ceiling paintings close-up

Part of the inca temple wall

Outside view, with the Catholic buildings using the Inca terraces as foundations

Church museum artifacts

A milky way representation as per the Incas were seeing it: with sacred animals in the middle!

We ended up by chance into the Contemporary art museum, where we could see some modern Peruvian art, which I quite liked. 1 painting to illustrate:

"Great expectations" from Fidel
"tomo para no enamorarme" = I drink to not fall in love

Congratulations if you read this post down to here (unless you're my mom, who I expect to read everything of course ;)! I've been quite exhaustive, and it took me quite some time, but I wanted to write down as much as possible, so I will remember all these various things done!

CUSCO BY NIGHT
The streets are as pleasant as there are by day, and I always felt safe overall, though of course some caution is required. Lights illuminate well buildings, and despite the cold (at 3,300m high!), there are quite some people in the streets from 10pm and up to 2-3am.
Of course, the restaurants and bars are active, which was true every night I went out, whether it was Monday, Thursday or Friday: there is really a good nightlife here! Stevie, Nina, Dennis, George and Marten will for sure support that thought ;-)

Qoricancha bottom view by night

City street view

The famous Mythology bar/cub: so many Pisco Sour drunk there! ;-)