Peru Day 5 - Cusco

Today was an exciting day!  After a few days of not seeing Lingon, we were finally to be reunited in Cusco!  We had an early flight and since the airport was far away we had to wake up early.  As luck would have it, I woke up with a splitting headache and major throbbing in my temples, I seriously thought I was not going to make it.  Miracles happen, and I showed up at the airport, and eventually started feeling better throughout the day.

Zito and Dawg were staying at a different hotel, and they had a free airport pick up, so I negotiated my own airport transfer.  Lingon had taken one for S/. 20 earlier in the morning, so I was content to get a car that would take me for this price, and make it without incident to Palacio del Inka where Lingon had already checked in.  It was so nice to see him after what seemed like a long time!  It is hard being apart.  Our hotel was gorgeous and we had an upgraded room.  :-)  I loved the vaulted ceilings and the old world charm.

After settling in, we went to lunch at Incanto, which was recommended by our hotel.  Did not find a website but here is their Tripadvisor review.  The initial purpose, or at least mine was, was to find cuy, which is guinea pig, served whole, so it looks all creepy and stuff, but the group got sick of looking and we settled on this place and ordered the cuy which was already butchered up.  Now we're not all that sure how cuy is supposed to be prepared, but Dawg thinks it is meant to be roasted.  This preparation was deep fried.  The skin was chewy, and had a weird taste, but once we removed the skin the meat frankly just tasted like chicken to me.  There was very little meat and it was a rather expensive dish at S/. 65.  I'd say don't get cuy here.  As to the dish in general, no comments, but I have not given up hope yet.  The other dishes we got were alpaca pepperoni pizza, which was tasty.  The alpaca had a stronger taste than the filet the other night, which was probably more in line with what I had expected alpaca to taste like.  Also got an Incanto house salad, good tasting, for fiber.  The last dish was the lomo saltado which was better than that at Mojsa in Puno from the previous night, but still loses out to Limon.

Alpaca pepperoni pizza, Incanto house salad, cuy and lomo saltado

Next, we went to visit Qorikancha, or the Sun Temple.  The walls used to be covered with gold and there used to be many ornaments made of gold.  Sadly all that was left was the stone, which was still somewhat impressive.  There was a pretty big courtyard, and let me just say I am in LOVE with courtyards and Cusco has an abundance of them!

Then we went off to Sacsayhuamán, or Sacsaywamán, also known as "sexy woman".  LOL.  I am glad we went here, since I was initially somewhat on the fence.  The stones were really big, the largest supposedly weighing 200 tons.  There are many theories on how it was constructed, but I chose to just enjoy the view instead of thinking too hard about it.  Hopefully some day someone will find out though, because it is seriously impressive.  We had a magnificent view of Plaza de Armas in Cusco from up there too!

We had dinner at Senzo, since Dawg wanted to try Central in Lima but we had no time and this was the chef's other restaurant.  We ordered some appetizers to share - salad with goat cheese, paiche (fish from the Peruvian Amazon) cerviche and fried polenta.  All the appetizers were big let downs.  Both Dawg and Zito wanted to eat light so they had a traditional Peruvian soup called Chairo which I thought was nice but very small and expensive for what it was and disappointing.  Lingon and I shared two items.  The suckling pig was SO good, skin was fried to perfection and the meat was tasty and somewhat fatty but not too grossly so.  The tartar of alpaca tasted similar to beef tartare, slightly different texture, which came with a dried potato ragout that resembled mac and cheese and was really delish.  I must comment that the bread was delicious.  In the picture below, the one on the left had some weird herb whose taste did not agree with me.  The regular white roll was just a white roll but very well done.  The olive bread was a favourite with the table and even I who don't like olives enjoyed that bread.  They gave us some petits fours at the end of the meal which were OK.  Overall I feel that Senzo is not that well rounded a restaurant, but Lingon's and my mains were really good, so kind of mixed there.  Together with 1 beer, 3 cocktails and 2 glasses of wine, that entire meal cost about USD$230.  They charged an 18% tax (no idea why, it was the first time we were hit with this) and 10% service in the bill, which was a first, and a tad disappointing.

To end it off, here are some pictures of a few courtyards of the Belmond properties that I really liked.  If I ever build a house, I will go for that look.  The Hotel Monasterio was having a bridal fair too so it was all pretty and decked out!  I think I liked the look of Palacio Nazarenas better, though.

Monasterio Main Courtyard

Palacio Nazarenas main courtyard

Another courtyard of Palacio Nazarenas

Pool area, day and night, of Palacio Nazarenas