Our Trip to Peru -- Part 2 -- Cusco

Well, we left Lima on a short flight to Cusco. Short it was, but the change was dramatic. Lima is on the coast. While we were there it was cloudy, misty, with a little rain and a chilly 60 degrees. We arrived in Cusco where it was 60 again -- but this time it was bright and sunny and much warmer, though the temperature difference was minimal.

An even bigger difference was, of course, the altitude. Lima is at sea level. Cusco is at 11,000+ feet. We were in Cusco two days early in the hope that we could acclimatize. Fat chance. Making that transition is always going to be hard. It's even harder when you make the transition in less than 90 minutes (which is all the time that the flight took). We spend most of the two days walking around Cusco and it was hard, very hard, especially whenever we had to go uphill.

Even though it was hard to breath, we loved Cusco. It is a delightful city of roughly 400,000 that is one of the most pleasant places we've had a chance to visit in our many trips. The city was bright and clean; and the people were quite friendly.

As you can see, the sky was an almost electric blue color and the Conquistador architecture just seems to fit in the context of the clear skies. This main plaza was literally filled with people, most of whom were doing nothing more than enjoying themselves on the day.

The food in Cusco was, if it is possible, even better than what we had eaten in Lima. We ate, twice at the MAP Cafe -- an al fresco cafe located in the courtyard of the Museo de Arte Precolumbiano. The South American wines were brisk and tasty and I had one of the most unusual dishes I've ever had -- a ceviche that was first cooked in lime (as normal) and then heated up by serving it over a hot stone, so that you had a warmed over ceviche. Add a spicy tomato-based sauce on top and it was just delicious.

But the highlight of our two days in Cusco was definitely the National Pre-school Day parade. Who knew? We simply wandered into it.

It seems that mandatory pre-school education is a relatively new thing in Peru and to celebrate there is, each year at the end of the school year, a national day, complete with parade. We were lucky enough to see the regional parade in Cusco which must have had more than 5000 young children marching. Each and every one of them was, like this angel, in a costume of some sort. They ranged from fantastical characters to recognizable cartoons [Spiderman] to themed ensembles [eco-friendly was very big]. The kids marched up to and then around the big plaza in front of the church, all the while accompanied by marching bands, to the enjoyment and admiration of all the parents and spectators. It was an altogether pleasant surprise and we sat on the steps of the church for quite a while watching the parade go by.

And so our 2 days in Cusco passed quickly. Late on Thursday we met our fellow travellers for a briefing in preparation for the Friday morning departure.