Pushing Pesos: Cusco PERU

Cusco, The inca capitol of the world...

Having visited a ton of cities and having heard that Cusco was meant to be one of the nicest, we were quite looking forward to arriving. Landing early after another over nighter on a bus, no hostel booked, we were extremely lucky to come across Pariwana Hostel. The hostel itself was set smack bang in the centre of the city and was really nicely done out, by far the best we have stayed in so far.

Anyway back to Cusco, famous for being the Incan empires capitol and also made famous by the most loved Incan king Pachacuti, who was responsible for vast expansion of Inca rule and also for building that little know place called Machu Pichu, is a very betiful city. Most tourists come here as it is the gateway for almost all tours to Machu Pichu.

Having arrived, our mission was to book our Machu Pichu tour which we sorted fairly quickly and cheaply, so by now it was lunchtime and we headed off to a local spot to grab some food. The price for our 3 course meal, consisting of a soup for starter (always the case in Peru) and some chicken and rice for seconds and a drink as thirds, was 3 and a half Soles, just under a pound and exactly in line with our tight budget.

Now I heard someone say in Bolivia on a bus that "one should never trust a fart" in Bolivia, which did make me aware of the how dodgy the food can be there, Peru no such advice was offered to us and having survived Bolivia for six weeks without any mistrust we thought that eating cheap would be ok.

Anyway, back to Peru, after our lunch we head back to hostel, Jo at quite a heftier pace than me, turns out that the saying in Peru is "never trust a 3 and a half Soles meal".

We had to delay the our tour to Machu Pichu by 1 day, so the next day with Jo still under the weather, it was time for me to explore Cusco with a Dutch Chap named Sietze who I met in the Hostel. First stop San Pedro market for a spot of lunch, this time I opted for the veg soup only.

The market itself was pretty cool selling alsorts of rubbish and some strange stuff too.................................

San Pèdro Market - one of the best markets we've been to

Menu 1 - Sheeps Head.

Menu 2 - Cheeky pig

Happy Pig

Menu 3, testicles con ribs

Witches mask

Witches stall

Seafood at the market

Maze is the staple diet of South America

After exploring the market we walked around and immediately needed to quench our thirst, and why not in the highest Irish bar in the world, the Irish really will put a claim on anything, but hey ho they served beer from a tap so that was good enough for us.

Only the Irish would attempt to wee like this - Irish Bar

Thirst quenched, it was time to explore the city, first stop a random graduation. We cheered on for our imagenary mate Pedro which got a few funny stares and the attention of the security guard so off we went....