South America Adventure - Part II - Cusco

Off to Peru! Early flight, but Rodrigo had some breakfast to go made for us, including peach juice. We first flew into Lima, and weirdly they  make you go outside the airport and walk back inside to check in for your next flight on international connections. Strange.

We found some delicious empanadas for lunch and then saw a mission president and his wife sending home a sister missionary. We chatted with them for a bit before heading to our gate. Latins have a hard time pronouncing Meghan's name, but they called her over the loudspeaker, and we ended up with an upgrade to exit row seats.

Flying up into those mountains is kinda crazy. The Cusco airport is pretty small. I had to search around for an ATM for some soles, then we grabbed a cab into the main part of town.

We got into Plaza de Armas and I was already loving it. Also, our cab driver was very quick to point out that the rainbow flags around are not for the gay moment, rather it represents Cusco and Incan heritage.

We dropped our bags at Pirwa Hostel in the plaza and set off to explore.

Such a beautiful day, and dogs everywhere.

Walking down Avenida El Sol.

I wanted to find the Traditional Textiles shop, since they sell authentic alpaca goods and support local crafters and teach traditional methods. I got a hat that I wore for most of the trip (it's cold in those little rooms at night) and a beautiful plum colored scarf that I've been wearing a lot lately. So soft!

There's Qorikancha, which we'd go back and explore another day.

We popped into this hotel for a minute, and decided that when we come back, we'll go luxury.

Over to Limo for dinner, which I'd heard good things about. It's right off the plaza upstairs, and we finally found it after wandering back into some spaces. They were pretty packed and we started off at the bar, but eventually got a table. Time to dig into that hot Peruvian cuisine!

Started off with some yucca.

I loved the fresh limeade that was everywhere. I got one with cucumber.

What I ended up eating nearly every meal in Peru - lomo saltado. My brother just came back from Peru where he took a cooking class and learned how to make it. I'm expecting some soon.

There in the middle - alpaca skewers. Alpacas are good for sweaters and hearty food.

After dinner we walked around the plaza a bit more and saw these children practicing for the upcoming festival. And maybe we stopped at Starbucks for a hot beverage and free wifi. Gotta keep up those Instagrams, ya know.

Showers in a cold room (at least we had hot water) then we packed ourselves under a ton of blankets for a good nights sleep. Off to the Sacred Valley the next day.