Bon voyage Cusco!

Last notes on Cusco

Highlights from my last day in Cusco: The Pre-Colombian Archeological Museum, The Iglesia de la Compania, hiking up and down (and up and down) the hills of San Blas, lunch at Pacha Papa - try the Alpaca & Roleto Relleno, non-tourist shopping (Kuna - amazing alpaca sweaters, Sol Alpaca, and the jewelry store in front of Hotel Monasterio in Plaza de las Nazarenas). For an afternoon respite, I suggest cocktails at Hotel Monasterio. It was here that I discovered my new fave, the Chilcano, a mixture of Pisco, Ginger Ale, and fresh lime juice. Sounds suspiciously like a skinny margarita now that I think of it!

I was glad to have this last day in Cusco to simply see the city, watch the people and take photos. The Plaza de Armas was teeming with people with little kids scampering about delightfully throwing bird seeds to the pigeons. It was darling (even if the 100's of pigeons weren't). One thing I was glad to leave behind in Cusco was the altitude; despite the oxygenated room at Hotel Monasterio, sleep beyond 5 hours eluded me. I would wake up gasping for air even with the help of my inhaler. Slightly alarming.

I'm no food critic but....

Chi Cha

Not cha cha…only the name of the restaurant that offered the best meal I’ve eaten in legitimately several years. Only had to fly from New York City to Cusco, Peru to enjoy the culinary legitimacy of Gaston Acurio. Not new to the scene, Acurio has restaurants around South America, Mexico D.F., Madrid, San Francisco and soon will grace us in NYC! (Thank God!)

I’ve never felt so compelled to share with the world the flavors of any food artisan. Literally I wanted to lick my plate. To begin, I ordered (per my waiters suggestion) the Ceviche del Sur that had pulpo (squid), calamares (calamari), choclo (sweet corn), & maiz tostado (toasted kernels of corn) in a vegetable cream sauce and served with fresh onion on top. The image to the left is courtesy of the Chi Cha Facebook page and close to the dish I ordered. Not one morsel was left unattended on my plate. A-ma-zing. I knew I’d hit the jackpot on this restaurant.

In ordering, I had wanted to do some traditional plates and my second dish was their house empanada, a dish I’m quite particular about after becoming acquainted with El Sanjuanino in Buenos Aires. No disappointment – simply elation, pure enjoyment. Filled with beef, mushrooms, and peppers and adorned with a fantastically spicy chopped chili pepper, fresh lime juice and salad of chopped onion and red pepper, it was to die for. My dad had been telling me how disappointed he’d been in the empanadas he’d tried in his travels from Santiago, Chile until our meeting in Cusco. Too bad he left this morning and didn’t get to experience this empanada. He’d have gone way long.

To round out the experience, my waiter suggested a digestive of a special anise from Arequipa served alongside two petit fours – a delicate little alfajor (whoever painstakingly made it, well done) and a sugared chicha (black maize) treat.

After dinner I struck up a conversation with the couple next to me from El Salvador. Their meal was equally as enjoyable – pulpo a la brisa (grilled octopus), recoto relleno (the stuffed peppers I had at lunch but better), a green pepper soup and chicken curry-type dish.

You better be salivating at this point. If not, run to your nearest Gaston Acurio restaurant immediately. No website…check on Facebook and you can see evidence of his greatness. Yum and Yum.

Los Detallitos

Los Detalles

Altitude – Cusco sits at approximately 11,000 feet above sea level. For anyone who has ever been with me to Mammoth you know how hard it is for me to breath at that height. Even with inhaler in hand and an oxygenated hotel room my lungs certainly got a workout hiking up and down the hills of the city of Cusco. Machu Picchu is actually slightly lower (9,000 feet) and with a slightly more mature crowd and 2 ½ hours of climbing there was a lot of huffing and puffing. Today I spent the day exploring Cusco and going up and down a lot of stairs like those in the picture above. I'd hustle to the top and find myself gasping for air with my heart pounding in my chest. Quite an experience! 

Pisco – The Pisco sour is a typical beverage found in Peru made with Pisco, sugar syrup, lime juice, bitters and egg white foam. I’d tried this margarita-like drink in the US but had never had the liquor on its own. On our way back from Machu Picchu, my dad and I sidled up to the train bar and asked for a Pisco lesson. There are 5 varietals of Pisco, all made with distinct grapes and they range from sweet to aromatic. The grapes are harvested along the coast of Peru from Lima south towards the border and are treated similar to wine – crushed, barreled in aluminum, heated and then chilled and then only the middle portion (el cuerpo) is bottled as clarity and lack of impurities is what constitutes a quality Pisco. To me it tasted like a good white Tequila with a sharper edge; the illustrious Scandinavian Aquavit also came to mind when it hit the back of my throat. 

Food – Usually I talk a lot more about our culinary experiences but until today we’ve been on a pretty generic food routine. Today I ate at Pacha Papa, a restaurant in the San Blas area of Cusco and ate two amazing Quechuan dishes – Roleto Relleno y Alpaca a la parilla. The first is a pepper grilled and filled with meat, corn and peas and topped with melted cheese; the second is marinated and grilled Alpaca meat. Both were succulent. Toasted corn kernels is a customary snack as well and quite tasty. Quinoa is also a prevalent component on the menu; we had cannelloni’s filled with spinach quinoa on the Hiram Bingham train returning from Machu Picchu.

Quechuan Women – Bouncy skirts, knee high socks, sweaters, colorful blankets tied to their backs, long dark hair braided down their backs, and a variety of hats resting atop their heads. Spanning all ages, these ladies walked the streets with their colorful blankets tied to their backs typically filled with small children, bringing images of Strega Nonna to my mind. Their hats were a curious adornment, ranging from Panama style caps to small bowler hats, hardly seeming to have any utilitarian purpose.

 J.C. – Visiting another church in the Plaza de Armas this afternoon, I was reminded of another unique element we learned. In several of the churches in Cusco, the scene of the crucifixion was depicted with a very dark skinned Jesus. As I mentioned in my last post, the Incans were the primary artisans in the churches and the theory is they depicted Jesus in the image of an Incan - with dark black hair and dark skin.

Cusco

Cusco

I arrived at the Hotel Monasterio mid-morning on Friday and was overwhelmed by the charm and beauty of this former monastery. Built in 1595, the hotel has two large open courtyards with perfectly manicured lawns and flowerbeds and a gorgeous stone fountain in the middle. The courtyards are surrounded by two story structures with the hotel rooms above and hotel amenities below. I’m sitting in the courtyard post breakfast (on Sunday) listening to the fall of the water and the chanting of monks playing discreetly over the sound system. Not a bad way to start my morning alone in Cusco. But I digress.

On Friday I met up with my family and after lunch at the hotel we went on a city tour of Cusco, the capital of the short-lived Incan Empire. The weather in Cusco is unpredictable to say the least. Sunny and blue skies transitions to downpour in a flash. We discovered this upon arrival at Saqsayhuaman, an Incan fortress and UNESCO archeological site overlooking the city of Cusco. Dressed in sandals, shorts and a windbreaker with my “durable” New York City umbrella, I shortly became the owner of a fabulously chic purple poncho. While not the ideal conditions, we trudged through the mud admiring the monolithic structures of this famous fortress. How the Incans were able to move these gigantic boulders and then shape them to fit seamlessly is a mystery to most. Given that the Incan history is predominantly oral, the hypotheses of historians are the base for our contemporary understanding of their history and culture.

From Saqsayhuaman, we went back to Cusco to visit the Templo of San Blas (the original church of the city), the Cathedral, and Qorikancha (the Convento de Santo Domingo). The Killke (900 AD) and Incan (13^th century – 1532) people, the original settlers of Cusco, were later joined by the Spanish conquistadors in the 1530’s. In the architecture and paintings inside the churches a unique blend of the Incan religion and the Spanish Catholic influence is present. The Incans were great artisans and were commissioned by the less artistically adept Spaniards to paint the murals and carve the ornate baroque altars in the churches. Unbeknownst to the Spaniards, the Incans incorporated images of the sun, moon, stars, mountains and other elements that are representative of their own religious beliefs into these works. The Spaniards, seeing the Incans openly worshiping in their newly constructed churches, ironically thought they had successfully converted the Incans to Catholicism.

In order to build these new churches and convents, the Spaniards tore down existing Incan temples and buildings and built on top of their foundations. The most impressive of these new constructions was the Cathedral. Built in stages (the first Cathedral wasn’t substantial enough so they tore down an adjacent Incan palace to build a larger principal Cathedral – the first attempt relegated to an ancillary chapel), the final product contains the main Cathedral, the chapel of Our Lord of the Tremors (theorized to have minimized damage to the Cathedral in a disastrous earthquake in 1650), the Royal Chapel, and the Iglesia del Triunfo. Having lived in Spain and traveled extensively, I have seen a LOT of churches, but this is by far one of the most spectacular. The baroque church has an extravagant altar of carved silver and gold plated cedar wood, an ornately carved cedar choir with rows of saints and religious figures, and a multitude of chapels with distinct saints. The most comical was the patron saint of amorous affairs – stacks of papers were left at the foot of the saint and supposedly if you put in a request for love it would likely come true. As our guide explained this supposed phenomenon, I could see my mom getting out her pen and paper on my behalf. Still waiting.

Our evening culminated with pisco sours and cocoa sours in the former chapel at the Hotel Monasterio. Seemed slightly incongruous to be imbibing in the former house of God, but we made it work. Classical Peruvian dancers entertained us during dinner, the perfect end to our first day in Peru and a solid preparation for our full day trip to Machu Picchu the next day.