Peru Part I: Cusco

Plaza de Armas, Cusco

About a year ago, my traveling buddy (and annoying brother from another mother) J asked me if I wanted to go to Peru over Thanksgiving.  I replied, "maybe," and the rest is history.

Inka Kola.
Banana haters beware:
banana soda exists.  

This was a trip full of firsts: my first trip to South America, my first 6 hour, middle-of-the-night wait in an unfamiliar airport in South America, my first cuy experience, and my first time sleeping in a capsule bolted to the side of a mountain.

Some wares at the Central Market

Just getting to Peru was an ordeal.  J's tickets had already been purchased and he'd be arriving in Lima at 8 am.  The plan was to fly straight from Lima to Cusco upon arrival.  Because I wanted to use frequent flyer miles, my flight times were even more limited, and the only flight that fit within the timeline had be landing in Lima at 1:45am, well before J's flight arrived at 8am.    This meant that I'd be waiting in the airport for hours until he got there.

A little fish roe.  Refrigeration optional.

No problem, until I started reading the State Department's warnings about the horrors that could befall me.  However, it turns out that the Lima arrivals area is full of other exhausted people waiting for their loved ones, and I had a pretty good sleep on a bench, and a pretty delicious $0.70 machine-dispensed cappuccino when I woke up. 

Once J arrived, we found the luggage storage area to stow his ski gear and set off for our respective flights to Cusco.  Due to an unhelpful security guard, I nearly missed my flight.  I think J had a nailbiter of a flight, wondering if I'd be at the Cusco airport waiting for him when he landed.

After we arrived in Cusco, we found our hotel to drop off our luggage before heading towards Cusco's Central Market (open on Sundays only).  On the way there, we cautiously avoided a food festival at the Plaza de San Francisco, which we later learned a was a major gastronomic failure and missed opportunity.

Comida Turistica.  No seriously, this was not a good
way to start the trip.  I was very worried.

After picking up a few souvenirs at the Market, we returned to the Plaza de Armas to grab some lunch and retrieve our train tickets for our ride to the town of Aguas Calientes later that afternoon.