Cusco, Peru – much more than just Machu Picchu

I find that most travelers gloss right over Cusco as their primary destination is the nearby Machu Picchu but it’s quite a lovely city. We also toured the nearby Sacred Valley including various Incan ruins before heading to Aguas Calientes to tour MP. I went caption heavy on the photos below so I’m keeping this brief. You’re welcome.

Cusco – I feel like tourists bombard Cusco for Machu Picchu but it really is a beautiful fun city. I could spend a lot of time here.

Cusco city flag is the rainbow flag

Chinchero, a town in the Sacred Valley with Inca ruins. Lotso Inca ruins in these parts.

Amy & I w the kick ass Dane, Malene. We coined ourselves “team lucky” bc everything we did together, ever tour, every snorkel trip, every unofficial snorkel trip, every trip to MP during the rainy season in Peru, turned out f’g fabulously.

Incas built the tiers to grow food. They’re everywhere. Including Machu Picchu. Incas gotta eat.

The Maras Salinas salt ponds, in use since Incan times. Different families own each salt pond & it’s operated as a cooperative. Apparently I’m somewhat obsessed w salt everything in SA (blatant foreshadowing).

This llama popped up on Malene’s Snapchat (I say that like I know what that means) & we kinda fell in love w it. I’ll spare you more FAKE llama friend pics.

Weird that these salt ponds are so far from the sea & at 3300m right? An underground salt spring feeds all these salt ponds. Super cool.

Folks think this circular tiered planting system in Moray was an Incan agricultural experiment. I look at it & see a fantastic live music venue. And this was before the chicha.

Our driver / tour guide asked if we wanted to try chicha. “YES!!!” So he stopped at this cute little old lady’s house & bought a glass for the equivalent of 30 cents. He knew she made & sold it bc there was a mini flag pole outside her door with a red ribbon. Really.

So chicha is this drink made from fermented yellow maiz. I met this PHD anthropologist in Bogota who was giving a graffiti tour & he did his dissertation on chicha (bc crazy Incas have been drinking it for awhile) & said he spent 2 years out of his mind. He warned me when I tried it to start with a very small portion indicating a shot glass size. So this glass seemed a bit large. We drank it, or most of it, & went on our way. It put both Amy & Malene asleep & I was close until I felt the impact & thought I’d stay awake to see it through. Definitely not a drunk feeling. More like a mind altering stoned feeling. Or so I would imagine.

Ollantaytambo was our final stop of the day for standout Incan ruins & to catch the train to Aguas Calientes.