Trompin' the 'Mericas: Into Peru and beyond....warning graphic photo included

Cusco in Plaza de Armas

Trail mix shop in San Pedro market

One of the perks of taking a 30 hour ride from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Lima, Peru is that you get to see the diverse country side. As we took the bus to Lima the landscaped changed from a green country side to a barren dessert. By barren I mean no cacti just rolling sand dunes that go down to the ocean, it felt like we were on the moon. It was eerie as we drove south towards Lima, the sun was setting and there was a haze over the ocean so you could not see where the ocean started or the sky began, just a red haze with a red fiery sun burning through. As we entered the periphery of Lima shanty housing communes started to show up out of the sand. Lima had a very different feel than the other cities we had visited, with 8 million plus people living here it felt huge, poor, unsafe and took 2 hours to drive through. Instead of taking another long 25 hour bus ride to Cusco we opted for a 1 hour flight to Cusco.

Arriving in Cusco felt like we were in a different country than Lima. We flew into green mountains with no sight of sand dunes or ocean. Wow this country is diverse in terrain. Cusco felt safe, lots of tourists and many tourist police. We can even walk around after dark without needing to take a taxi (taking a taxi is safer than walking in the evening, we are all over decreasing the chances of being mugged). Cusco would be the equivalent to Banff back home. People have their SLR cameras slung around their neck as they walk around town. It's a good place to be, especially while both of us recover from different bouts of sickness. The architecture in Cusco is beautiful, visited San Pedro market for fruit and homemade chicken noodle soup for just less than $2 for a large flavorful bowl. Yummy especially when feeling sick and the weather is a bit rainy. There are lots of other foods and products sold at this market from a man selling llama fat, to the butchers, bakers and chocolate. We visited a chocolate museum here, I have had my best ever hot chocolate here in Cusco. After about 5 days of feeling the altitude lethargy and being sick we kicked back into adventuring again.

Looks like they sell donkey meat here

Cuy the house pet that doubles as dinner

Cusco area and Peru in general are known for Inca ruins (maybe you have heard of this little place called Machu Picchu? ) so we decide to explore parts of the Sacred Valley. Our first stop in the Sacred Valley was the Pisac ruins, its supposedly good training for the Inca trail and we found this to be true. We hiked straight up the mountain, up many steep small stairs through terraces on the side of the mountain which was used for growing crops. The top of the mountain had many spectacular ruins. Being our first ruins to have explored, we were very impressed. We ate at a local restaurant which also was a bakery. Next to the wood burning oven was a cage of guinea pigs, little did the guinea pigs know that they were living 4 feet away from their final resting point. Cuy or guinea pig is a traditional Peruvian food which we have yet to "enjoy".

Next on the sacred valley tour we stopped off at Moray which is a archeological Inca sight with terraces inset into the ground. The story goes that the Incas grew different crops on different levels of the terraces as each terrace was a slightly different temperature. We also explored salinas or salt ponds where a salty stream flows out of the mountain into these pools that eventually dry up in the heat. Families in the area own 4 to 6 pools and harvest the salt which is supposed to have medicinal properties, they fail to mention hypertension as a possible side effect of this miracle salt.