Peru - Arrival in Cusco

Peru - Cusco Arrival and an Impromptu Cooking Class

Arrival in Cusco

When we were arranging our itinerary last July, Aurelie, our very wise AirTreks travel planner, had us flying from Lima to Cusco on December 21st, a few days before we wanted to visit Machu Picchu. “Don’t plan anything specific for those days,” she told us, “you’ll need time to get used to the altitude.” And so right she was! Lima is on the coast and Cusco is over 11,000 ft above sea level - a helluva sudden change. David noticed how tiring it was to walk a few blocks but it didn’t slow him down a whole lot. I, on the other hand, felt miserable. After walking a couple of blocks to get some lunch, I took some pills, went to bed and slept for about 12 hours.

As advised, we didn’t do anything more strenuous those first days other than explore the immediate neighborhood a bit, the San Blas area. A very cute maze of extremely narrow cobblestone streets dating from pre-Inca and Inca times. You can tell the streets were made for goat carts not automobiles as there are times you have to flatten yourself against a wall so not to be hit by a side mirror when a car goes by.

The streets are lined with hostels, little tiendas selling bottled water and snacks, tourist shops selling beautiful alpaca sweaters and blankets, jewelry, and masks, and occasional restaurants. And, of course, there are the colorful ladies enticing you to hold the cutest little baby alpaca and have your photo taken with them, for a fee of course. They were really irresistible.

Our aribnb was in an old colonial home with a lovely courtyard.

One reason we like to rent airbnb’s is so that we have a kitchen to cook for ourselves, but this kitchen was sorely lacking in equipment -- no coffee maker and only one tiny frying pan. We asked the host, Gary, if it was possible to borrow some things and he came back with a French press coffee maker and wok shaped pan, along with their housekeeper, Soledad. Gary said that no one ever really cooks when they stay there and they were surprised we wanted to. Soledad was particularly interested, and it turns out she is a culinary student herself. After some conversation in mixed English and Spanish about food, we told her about eating at Central, in Lima and showed her some of our photos. From then on we were fast friends and she offered to teach us how to make a traditional Peruvian dish, Aji de Gallina, chicken in a creamy yellow sauce with hard boiled eggs and potatoes and rice.

Here, Soledad is demonstrating for me how to shred the chicken with my fingers.

This impromptu cooking class turned out to be a very special event. We not only learned a new dish, we made a new friend. Afterwards, we shared the meal together. We hope that Sol can come to visit us in Bellingham some day and we will cook up a family feast with her.