Cusco and the surrounding area
Cusco and the surrounding area
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For us, Cusco is the most beautiful city in Peru, we highly recommend to spend there several days. It’s also the perfect place to adapt to the altitude, before visiting the higher Rainbow Mountains or Humantay Lake, since Cusco is located already at 3.400 meters. Cusco played a big role as the capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th to the mid 16th century. Cusco is very popular amongst backpackers since it’s a trendy vibrant city and the perfect base to explore the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Rainbow Mountains and Humantay Lake with a tour. Walk through beautiful historic alleys with colonial architecture, get some delicious coffee at a café with the best view and go poncho shopping.
Explore Cusco City – 3.400m above sea level
There is a lot to explore in Cusco City, the historic centre where you find the museums, cathedrals and markets, as well as the San Blas District with all the galleries, cafés and bars. In the evening you will hear live music everywhere, it’s pretty common that restaurants and cafés hire a live band here, especially at the weekend.
1. Explore the viewpoints
Cusco’s viewpoints are perfect to get a great overlook of the city, they are popular amongst locals too, who relax and meet friends up there. There are several viewpoints around the city, but these two were our favorites.
Plaza San Cristobal
Plaza San Cristobal is probably the best viewpoint since you can see the whole city in front of the Andes. The main square with the cathedral is located in the middle. The place was full of locals enjoying the view.
Desde el Cristo Blanco
The Cristo Blanco is a sculpture of Jesus Christ located on the Pukamoqo hill, a place considered sacred by the Incas. The monument is located just 2 kilometers from Cusco city and only a few steps from the entrance to the archaeological site of Sacsayhuaman.
2. Explore the Historical Centre: Plaza de Armas & Cusco Cathedral
The main square, Plaza de Armas, and the Cathedral is located in the city centre of Cusco. This place is always busy and it’s very interesting to see the locals selling popcorn, beautiful textiles or alpaca pictures. Close to the main square you will also find the famous market.
3. Walk through the San Blast District
San Blas is the most beautiful district in Cusco, it’s so trendy, artistic, full of live music, young people, great cafés and restaurants, handicraft shops, and galleries. Head North from Plaza de Armas up ancient streets to get there. Take some time to stroll through the streets, from one shop to the next one, from one café to the next restaurant. We loved the live music in the evening, especially on Friday and Saturday the city is full of life!
4. Relax in the cafés with the best view over the city
The best cafés in Cusco are these with a great view over the small alleys of Cusco from cute little balconies. We found a really nice one in the San Blas district and at the main square.
L’Atelier in San Blas
Imagine yourself sitting in a cute balcony with your coffee and cake watching the people coming and going and a live band playing just at the alley under your feet. In the distance you see the Peruvian Andes and the red light of the setting sun. How romantic. This happened to us here, I was totally fascinated. At the ground floor L’Atelier is a beautiful handicraft shop selling clothes, hats, bags and art. Go upstairs where you will find only 3 exclusive seating options.
Cappuccino Café at Plaza de Armas
If you prefer a great view while watching the hustle and bustle on the main square, Cappuccino at Plaza de Armas is the place for you. It also has 3 beautiful balconies and good coffee.
5. Reward yourself at all the amazing restaurants
Cusco has the best cafés and restaurants in whole Peru! This city is also extremely vegan friendly! There are several completely vegan very popular restaurants, as well as a lot of places with lots of vegan options.
Favorite One: Green Point Restaurant
Our absolutely favorite restaurant was the completely vegan Green Point. And it’s THE restaurant here. Even people who aren’t into the vegan thing go there, since the food is star level dining! It’s sooo good! On Friday and the weekend they often have great live bands playing Buena Vista Social music at the ground floor.
Other Restaurants:
- Morena (Peruvian kitchen)
- Qura Bowl Bar
- Avocado, toast & more
- Rucula
6. Go shopping! Get some ponchos!
Especially in the San Blast district there are so many incredible handicraft shops. Our favorite was L’Atelier (with the café on the first floor), but there are so many other great ones! If you like to get a poncho or a hat for Machu Picchu pictures, this is the place where you can find the most beautiful high quality ones.
7. Explore San Pedro Market
San Pedro Market is located only a few minutes from the main square. Just walk through the different alleys in the market hall. The alleys are allocated in different subjects, like fruits, vegetables, nuts, cheese or household goods. Locals go here, too.
8. Qorichancha Temple
Qorichancha Temple was the most important temple in the Inca Empire, built to honor the sun god. Sadly the conquisators destroyed most of the temple and built their own monument on top of the foundations. There’s a museum on-site. It’s closed on Sunday, the entry fee is 15 soles per person.
9. Sacsayhuman
Sacsayhuaman is only 10 minutes from the Plaza de Armas by car or 30 minutes by foot. You will find huge walls of stone there, since it was used as a fortress to defend Cusco, when the old Spanish arrived in the 16th century. The Sacsayhuaman archaeological site is divided into three different zones, the walled fortress, the parade ground, and the ceremonial section. The entry fee is 70 soles per person.
Trips around Cusco
Cusco is the perfect base for exploring all the different sights in the surrounding area, since it is located in the centre of everything. Most tour operators provide one day or multi day tours from Cusco to Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu, Humantay Lake, Rainbow Mountains or just the close Sacred Valley. You can also rent a car in Cusco and explore the different sights on your own, we didn’t have any problems and the traffic wasn’t that bad here.
1. Explore the Sacred Valley – the Urubamba Valley
The closest day tour from Cusco is to the nearby Sacred Valley. Stretching from Pisac to Ollantaytambo, this fertile valley is irrigated by the Urubamba River. Between these two cities you will find beautiful mountains, Incan ruins and growing regions. This protected valley provides the perfect conditions for agriculture. The ancient terraces were planted with flowers, a variety of cereals, vegetables and a huge variety of potatoes. They planted more than 4000 species of potatoes.
Maras – Salineras de Maras
1.5 hours from Cusco you can visited this huge plantation of salt mines, strategically dug into the mountainside. These salt pans have been in operation for more than 500 years. Salt water is channeled into the pans. When the water evaporates, the workers scrape the salt crystals from the surfaces. Then the pan is filled with salt water again.
Moray – agricultural circles
In Moray you can see ancient agricultural. Crops were grown in a ring of concentric circles of different heights. They experimented planting crops on different heights and orientations, causing different temperatures.
Pisac Ruins
The Pisac ruins are perched high on a mountain ridge above the village of Pisac and provide a clear view of the surrounding valley. The ruins are more like a collection of small villages connected by a narrow path. The first section of Pisac, featuring giant terraces, a hill full of old buildings offers a great view. Walk up the hill and wander through the ruins. Unfortunately we weren’t able to visit this place due to street work.
2. Take the famous train to Aguas Calientes 2.040m – Visit Machu Picchu
Cusco is also the perfect base to start your Machu Picchu adventure. Take the PeruRail train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, or take a taxi to Ollantaytambo and get on board of the train to Aguas Calientes from Ollantaytambo. Arriving in Aguas Calientes, also called Machu Picchu Town, you can either take the bus up to the citadel Machu Picchu or you decide to pull through one of the different hiking trails around Machu Picchu.
Visit Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu, the mysterious ancient Incan citadel, speaking of huge agricultural terraces, thoughtful stone constructions and epic hilltop views, is one of the new seven wonders of the world. Machu Picchu was built in the 15th century by Peru’s Inca civilization and only rediscovered in July 1911, covered by the forest.
Read more about “How to visit Machu Picchu”
Things to do in Ollantaytambo:
You should definitely consider to spend some time in Ollantaytambo, maybe after you explored the Sacred Valley or just before your trip to Aguas Calientes / Machu Picchu. Ollantaytambo is tiny but has a lot to offer, unfortunately it is often overlooked next to nearby Machu Picchu. Ollantaytambo is located 2 hours from Cusco, surrounded by mountains and the Patacancha and Urubamba Rivers.
In Ollantaytambo you can visit the ruins of Ollantaytambo, in the nearby area visit Pinkuylluna Mountain Granaries, the Pumamarca Ruins and the Patacancha Valley.
3. Hike the Ausangate Trek to Rainbow Mountains – Or do a day tour to Rainbow Mountains 5.200m
You can easily book a day tour or a private driver from Cusco to Rainbow Mountain. We highly recommend to start the trip really really early, so that you arrive before 8am. Afterwards all the tourist busses arrive and the hike up the mountain is totally crowded by tourists. Why hiking 1.5 hours up the hill over 5.000m when you barely can’t see anything because of the amount of tourists up there.
Ausangate Trek to Rainbow Mountain Vinicunca
We decided for another less touristic option to visit Rainbow Mountains: We started the 3 day Ausangate Trek in Tinki, the closest little town next to the big Ausangate Mountain, 2.5 hours away from Cusco. From there a local drove us to Upis, the starting point of the Ausangate Trek. We hiked the next two days around the big Ausangate Mountain with its snowy peak, took several passes over 5.000 meters and slept at over 4.000 meters in our tents. The second night we’ve already slept close to THE Rainbow Mountain, therefore we could wake up early on our third day to be up at the Rainbow Mountain for sunrise. And that was the best decision ever! With 2 other hikers we had the mountain for ourselves and saw the snow slowly melting until the various colors got visible. When we started the hike down to the parking lot it got so damn crowded. You can do the Ausangate Trek independently or as a guided tour.
Read more about the Ausangate Trek.
Rainbow Mountain Vinicunca or Palccoyo
On the Ausangate trek you visit the famous Rainbow Mountains Vinicunca. But actually there is another Rainbow Mountain called Palccoyo, which is lesser visited by tourists. The mountain is shaped more flat, but the hike up the mountain is a lot easier than Rainbow Mountain Vinicunca.
4. Hike up to Humantay Lake on 4.200m
We drove around 3 hours from Cusco first on bigger roads, followed by curved gravel roads until we reached the parking lot at the food of the mountain. We slept in the car and started our hike early the next morning. Therefore we could start really early before the other tourists arrived. However, you can also book a normal one day trip with a tour agency from Cusco, for example with Exploor!
After a 1.5 hour exhausting hike we arrived at 4.200 meters above sea level at this incredible blue lagoon surrounded by snowy mountain peaks. You can climb up the hill on the left side of the lake for a better view of the lagoon. Definitely get used to the altitude in Cusco for 1-2 days before this hike. This hike is the perfect first test how your body reacts to this altitude, before you climb 5.000m passes like Rainbow Mountains.
How to get around in Cusco?
It is also an option to rent a car in Cusco and drive to all the locations mentioned above independently. In Cusco or Ollantaytambo you can leave your car in a supervised garage. Only refuel at the bigger gas stations like Primax, Repsol or Petro Peru and only take the Gasohol 95! Don’t panic, the price is per gallon not per liter. Gas is cheap here! We found it pretty easy to drive independently in the Cusco area, only Cusco city was a bit more stressful. We didn’t have any problems with the police or car rental at all. If you don’t want to rent a car, you can book day trips from Cusco, for example with Exploor.
Where to stay and when to go?
We stayed in the beautiful Selina hostel in a private room. However there are a lot of beautiful cheap hotels in Cusco.
The dry season, also the winter in Peru, runs from May to September. In these months you have a high chance of almost no rain fall. There is only a small risk that even in the dry season clouds could cover the view.
The wet season runs from October to April. There is a high risk of rainfall and it could be, that clouds cover the whole mountains of Machu Picchu for example while you are standing in the rain.
Altitude sickness?
Throbbing headache, loss of appetite, nausea, lethargy, altered sleep patterns, shortness of breath, these are symptoms of altitude sickness. It can start at 2.500m, but for most people once passing beyond 3.000m.
With higher altitude, the air gets thinner, oxygen levels decrease and – for those not used to being at higher altitudes – your body is rebelling. Your physical condition doesn’t influence the chance of getting altitude sickness, however it definitely helps with the long climbs.
It’s necessary to plan enough days for acclimatization! Coming from Lima with near sea-level you really need to adjust and relax in Cusco sitting on 3.400m. Your body needs to get used to simply functioning on less oxygen. After one or two relaxing days in Cusco, you can slowly start with the hikes up to Humantay Lake, if that worked, climb Rainbow Mountains afterwards. Also it helps to really take it slow (don’t strain), take a lot of breaks, drink a lot of water, sleep a lot, don’t eat heavy and don’t drink coffee. The locals swear on coca tea, coca pills, coca sweets. We tried coca tea and coca sweets, it tasted okay, don’t know if it really helped ;).
Once you get really sick, you feel crappy for another few days, so don’t exaggerate.
Anzeige / ad: The hotels and companies we mentioned above didn’t sponsor us. Our recommendations are based on our own opinion.
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