On our quest to walk the Inca Trail, we passed through both Lima and Cusco twice. The short times that we had in each place left us wanting more.

Cusco

Cusco is mostly used as a gateway for travellers heading to Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu. It is a UNESCO world heritage site itself, though, and has much to offer. Due to our delay in Madrid, we only had 18 hours to spend in Cusco before our trek.

Much of our time was spent organising things for our trek - paying Peru Treks, making scroggin, buying gear we didn't have and packing our bags. We did enjoy our stop for lunch in the main square, with the surrounding mountains providing a perfect backdrop for its colonial architecture, lush gardens and bubbling fountain. In an attempt to alleviate the effects of altitude, we spent the rest of our time drinking coca tea and sleeping.

Lima

For Aisha and I, Lima was mostly about the food. We'd heard from a Peruvian friend, Zulma, that the seafood in Lima was second-to-none. So, in the day or so we had, Aisha and I went out to sample the local specialities.

The first culinary delight was ceviche, a mix of raw seafood in a lime brine, garnished with onion, coriander and chilli. The pustulose ark ceviche that I had was incredible. The second speciality that had to be tried was guinea pig. It wasn't particularly good, tasting a lot like bland chicken.

Besides eating, the only thing that Aisha and I did was walk through the local neighbourhood of Miraflores. A public art installation consisting of random fibreglass cows strewn around the place provided some surprises as we walked down the plaza to the coast. We stopped for a while in the Love Park, and later watched the paragliders launch and land on the steep seaside cliffs. A very cool city.

Locations