Today's post will not be a long one since it is late and we have to get up at the crack of dawn to start our Machu Picchu hike. This will also be the last for the next few days since I will be sans internet. Bet you are happy about less reading. ;-)
I'm going in sort of reverse order today. I wanted to start out with dinner, since it made such an impression on me.
Lingon and I went on a date to Chicha, one of Gaston Acurio's restaurant for dinner. It was sort of by accident, but a nice accident! They gave us Andean potato chips with some sauce that I did not like that much. For our starter we got a mixed cerviche, which had prawns, octopus, trout and a few accompaniments. Delicious. For entrees, we got a trout (cuchuro black butter, rocoto red hot pepper, broad bean puree and sauteed jataco) and lechon (sacha tomato, potato, melted kapchi, corn on the cob and sauteed jataco). The trout was sublime, everything was just perfect, from the way it was cooked to the accompaniments. The lechon (pig) was cooked with BBQ sauce, which I really did not like, though Lingon did. The meat itself was really tasty and well cooked. I was not crazy about the tomato thing, but all other accompaniments were good. The jataco, which is a leafy green vegetable, was amazing. Tasted so fresh and delicious and really stood out - funny thing to stand out, a green, but it really did. I also loved the dessert, which was a chocolate souffle with Andean mint ice cream, and fried coca milk with vanilla cream and quinoa ice cream. The souffle tasted pretty standard but very well done. The fried coca milk was most like a custard which was battered and deep fried with perhaps quinoa, tasted a bit like matcha which I love, and maybe that's why I liked it so much. This was the most unique dish of the night and possibly my favourite. Included a picture of the inside which was a vibrant green and a nice surprise when I cut into it.
Well, that's it for dinner. So much for a shorter post. But now let's go back to the day time.
Woke up for the first time since getting to Puno not feeling like complete backside. My head still hurt a bit, but the loud painful thumping in my head was absent! Finally getting over altitude sickness!! Since Lingon is a Starwood Platinum member, we chose breakfast as our freebie at our hotel. Again, this breakfast was pretty standard - fruit, eggs, bacon, pastries. The only standout was that it had smoked salmon and the pastries looked nicer.
Then we headed out for our Sacred Valley group tour to see the Inca towns and ruins, which cost S/. 30. This was very cheap since our hotel was charging us about US$63 and Zito and Dawg's was about US$45. Wow. We found this tour at some travel agent near the square. Note that you have to buy your own boleto turistico, which is either S/. 70 for a limited one or S/. 130 for a full one.
We started out at Pisac. I thought we were going to the town and market, but for some reason it was given a miss, perhaps as it was not the main market day. We went to the ruins, which consisted of agricultural crop steps, as well as structures for houses, temples, storage, etc.
Then we went to Urubamba for lunch, which was a rather unexciting place. The bus took us to quinoa, but since lunch was not included for us we walked around and went to another place whose name I forgot which was almost right across the street, but it had a nicer looking dining area with live flute music. The buffet cost S/. 35. I think this is a standard stop for all tour buses for lunch, with all restaurants having a buffet option (Quinoa was S/. 25 in comparison but looked a bit sad). The food was edible.
Next off we went to Ollantaytambo, which had magnificent huge steep terraces that served as a fortress. Across from the stepped terraces that we climbed were storage units that had holes which allowed the wind (and boy was it windy!) to enter, which served as refrigeration! How smart the Incans were!
Our last stop was Chinchero, whose church was the main attraction. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed of the interior. It was a very old, poorly maintained church, but well ornamented with a rather interesting history. Nothing spectacular, and if you were on your own I would give this a miss. I got a picture of the exterior and also of the light after the sun had set (bad picture, sorry!).
I really enjoyed the tour today. The ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo were simply magnificent. How did they do all this?! Seems daunting. The people back in the day seem so clever, resourceful and strong!
OK, well, goodbye for the next few days and hope you don't miss me too much.
xoxo
I'm going in sort of reverse order today. I wanted to start out with dinner, since it made such an impression on me.
Lingon and I went on a date to Chicha, one of Gaston Acurio's restaurant for dinner. It was sort of by accident, but a nice accident! They gave us Andean potato chips with some sauce that I did not like that much. For our starter we got a mixed cerviche, which had prawns, octopus, trout and a few accompaniments. Delicious. For entrees, we got a trout (cuchuro black butter, rocoto red hot pepper, broad bean puree and sauteed jataco) and lechon (sacha tomato, potato, melted kapchi, corn on the cob and sauteed jataco). The trout was sublime, everything was just perfect, from the way it was cooked to the accompaniments. The lechon (pig) was cooked with BBQ sauce, which I really did not like, though Lingon did. The meat itself was really tasty and well cooked. I was not crazy about the tomato thing, but all other accompaniments were good. The jataco, which is a leafy green vegetable, was amazing. Tasted so fresh and delicious and really stood out - funny thing to stand out, a green, but it really did. I also loved the dessert, which was a chocolate souffle with Andean mint ice cream, and fried coca milk with vanilla cream and quinoa ice cream. The souffle tasted pretty standard but very well done. The fried coca milk was most like a custard which was battered and deep fried with perhaps quinoa, tasted a bit like matcha which I love, and maybe that's why I liked it so much. This was the most unique dish of the night and possibly my favourite. Included a picture of the inside which was a vibrant green and a nice surprise when I cut into it.
Well, that's it for dinner. So much for a shorter post. But now let's go back to the day time.
Woke up for the first time since getting to Puno not feeling like complete backside. My head still hurt a bit, but the loud painful thumping in my head was absent! Finally getting over altitude sickness!! Since Lingon is a Starwood Platinum member, we chose breakfast as our freebie at our hotel. Again, this breakfast was pretty standard - fruit, eggs, bacon, pastries. The only standout was that it had smoked salmon and the pastries looked nicer.
Then we headed out for our Sacred Valley group tour to see the Inca towns and ruins, which cost S/. 30. This was very cheap since our hotel was charging us about US$63 and Zito and Dawg's was about US$45. Wow. We found this tour at some travel agent near the square. Note that you have to buy your own boleto turistico, which is either S/. 70 for a limited one or S/. 130 for a full one.
We started out at Pisac. I thought we were going to the town and market, but for some reason it was given a miss, perhaps as it was not the main market day. We went to the ruins, which consisted of agricultural crop steps, as well as structures for houses, temples, storage, etc.
Then we went to Urubamba for lunch, which was a rather unexciting place. The bus took us to quinoa, but since lunch was not included for us we walked around and went to another place whose name I forgot which was almost right across the street, but it had a nicer looking dining area with live flute music. The buffet cost S/. 35. I think this is a standard stop for all tour buses for lunch, with all restaurants having a buffet option (Quinoa was S/. 25 in comparison but looked a bit sad). The food was edible.
Next off we went to Ollantaytambo, which had magnificent huge steep terraces that served as a fortress. Across from the stepped terraces that we climbed were storage units that had holes which allowed the wind (and boy was it windy!) to enter, which served as refrigeration! How smart the Incans were!
Our last stop was Chinchero, whose church was the main attraction. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed of the interior. It was a very old, poorly maintained church, but well ornamented with a rather interesting history. Nothing spectacular, and if you were on your own I would give this a miss. I got a picture of the exterior and also of the light after the sun had set (bad picture, sorry!).
I really enjoyed the tour today. The ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo were simply magnificent. How did they do all this?! Seems daunting. The people back in the day seem so clever, resourceful and strong!
OK, well, goodbye for the next few days and hope you don't miss me too much.
xoxo
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