Exploring Cusco

Today was reserved for exploring Cusco. We woke up late after a much-deserved post-Machu slumber and decided to hit the San Blas neighborhood. San Blas is the hip, bohemian, artsy neighborhood in Cusco. We arrived around 10:30am and the place was dead. It took us about 45mins to even find a place that would cook us food. After getting food in our bellies we went shopping and exploring. Apparently this neighborhood doesn't even get going until after noon.

San Blas Plaza

Overlooking San Blas Plaza

Streets of San Blas

Streets of San Blas

Church in San Blas Plaza

We toured around, checking out a lot of the local artisan shops and just slowly made our way down the super steep hills back toward the Plaza Arames.

No horns please

Snacks found in a mercado in Cusco

Later that day we went to check out Saqsaywaman, an Incan ruins site just 1mile outside of Cusco. It was pretty rad and provided sweeping views of cusco. We were there at sunset, so added bonus for beautiful sunset over the mountains of Cusco as the mountains cast shadows on the town below.

Overlooking Cusco

Saqsaywaman ruins

Saqsaywaman ruins

Saqsaywaman ruins

Saqsaywaman ruins

Saqsaywaman ruins

Overlooking Cusco from Saqsaywaman

Overlooking Cusco

Saqsaywaman ruins selfie

Bill and Llamas!

Llama selfie!

Saqsaywaman ruins

For dinner, I had to eat cuy, aka guinea pig! We made reservations at this local spot for dinner and pre-ordered a roasted cuy. There's two typical ways cuy is prepared, oven roasted, or pan fried. Oven roasted is the preferred way, but it takes over half an hour so if you're going to do it, it's best to call ahead so you're not sitting there forever, hence the reservations.

The cuy came out nicely presented with top hat and all! After presentation (and pictures), the cuy was taken back and chopped in quarters. It's cliche to say, but it really did taste like chicken! Actually, more like a mix between chicken and rabbit. It was quite good and simply prepared, letting the rodent's natural taste speak for itself. I would definitely eat it again. That being said, I haven't been "right" since. Seriously. Not sure if it was the cuy or lord only knows what else. Bill had Alpaca Kebabs that night, he opted out of the cuy. The alpaca was amazingly delicious! It tasted like a nice veal. I was really impressed.

Over roasted guinea pig, aka cuy

Nice top hat on my delicious cuy

After dinner we headed to the Pisco Museum. It's not really a museum, per-se, but a bar with hundreds of pisco. I didn't even know this many piscos existed. The museum's mantra is to "spread pisco to the world". For those of you who don't know, pisco is a liquor distilled from grape juice. The juice only is extracted, and then distilled. Like tequila, by law, Peruvian pisco can only come from 8 different grape varietals over 5 regions of Peru. If it didn't come from those 8 grapes in those 5 regions, it's not pisco. We opted for the guided tasting which got us a flight of pisco, 4 different types: aromatic, non-aromatic, a blend, and one from partially fermented juice. The tasting was guided by  pisco expert who sat at our table with us and told us everything we'd ever want to know about pisco. The best part, for me, was the ability to ask a zillion questions to an expert. At $10 each, it was well worth it and was a very enjoyable, educational experience. After it was all said and done, I preferred the partially fermented variety, but at the end of the day, I don't really care for pisco. It always gives me a headache and I don't really enjoy the high it produces.

Hundreds of Pisco at the Pisco Museum

We didn't really do much today and took it easy. Tomorrow, we tour the Sacred Valley!