We stayed four nights in Cusco, at AirBnB two blocks from Plaza de Armas, excellent, beautiful and spacious apartment, best place we stayed in Peru.
First day was Corpus Christi, we spent long time watching colorful procession. Than we had special traditional Corpus Christi meal chiriuchu at Plaza San Francisco with all the locals, it includes a piece of Guinea pig (cuy), chicken, sausage, corn, pancake, seaweed and fish roe, it represents food from different parts of Peru. We ate all that in great festive atmosphere of the plaza. Then we visited Quricancha – the Inca palace in Cusco and its museum, and the Jesuit church with a great view of the Plaza with more fiesta going on.
Chiriuchu at Plaza San Francisco
Next day, we took taxi to visit Tambomachay, walked to Puca Pucara, flagged a bus down to Quenqo, walked to Sacsaywaman, spent long time there, and then walked down to Cusco. Whole day of visiting different ruins, great day. We also went to Cusco Cathedral. The Cathedral was also very interesting and all the figures from different churches were staying there 8 days after Corpus Christi. One evening we went to dance performance, it was good, but started later than we thought and we were tired of waiting.
Last day in Cusco, we went to the South Valley. We planned to travel on our own, but for sake of time we took a tour and we enjoyed it. We visited beautiful church in Andahuaylillas. We watched llama dance in front of it by group attending Qoyllur Rit’i festival, fascinating and authentic. We also visited Tipon terraces and water fountains/channels and wonderful and huge Huari (Wari) ruins of Pikillacta. The guide was good and provided interesting explanations without being boring. We would wander more on our own, but this tour was surprisingly good. On the way back, we ordered chicharron and Guinea pig in a town famous for them and had our orders delivered to the bus to eat after we were back in Cusco. Guinea pig in the Corpus Christi dish was better though. Other days we were eating both in tourist places and local (including Chifa, very good tamarind chicken), and most dishes were very tasty. We liked beef heart anticuchos.
