Cusco came at the perfect time for us. A big city with great food and decent accommodation... exactly what we needed.

We decided to have 5 days in Cusco prior to our Inka Trail trek, acclimatising and having a holiday from our holiday. We were lucky we had already had around 6 days at altitude before arriving. Standing at 3400 mt above sea level, there was a noticeable lack of oxygen in the air.

We arrived on the 7th just in time for my birthday the following day.
Adam made a massive effort to make my day special. It was a great start to the day, cake at breakfast and gift opening... the gorgeous Hannah and Kath had thoughtfully prepacked cards and gifts for me! I felt so very lucky and spoilt.

We headed off to a day spa near the hotel around lunch time. On arrival to the spa, two gorgeous little Peruvian ladies greeted us and showed us to some day beds. They left us there momentarily and soon returned with a vase of flowers, handing them to me with a hug and kiss and a ‘Happy birthday lady!’. Adam had arranged an Inka spa and an hour massage for each of us. The spa was beautiful. A deep, square, stone bath, filled with perfectly tempered water and topped with bubbles, white and red rose petals and eucalyptus leaves. We soaked and chatted for an hour. Although we have had many hours together lately, there was something special about the Australian aromas and a warm spa! We really enjoyed it. Our massages were great and we left feeling rejuvenated and unlike backpackers! Such a luxury.

When we arrived back to the hotel, there was a whole cake waiting for me in our room. The top hilariously read ‘Happy Birthday Lucas Elspeth’. No matter where I shall go in life, my name will continue to need explanation!!

That evening we went to a perfect little Japanese restaurant on the main Plaza de Armas square. We had a seat by the window which from the second floor looked over the softly lit square below. A happening square with restaurateurs on each corner hustling business, hundreds of tourists browsing, local woman carrying piles of hats and scarfs for sale and the standard neighbourhood dogs, who we were assured, each had a home!

Dinner was one of the best of the trip. We started with, and continued with, cocktails throughout dinner and had delicious, vegetable filled entrees and mains. I was again surprised with another cake and a happy birthday serenade at the end of the evening. It was the perfect day, Adam did an absolutely stellar job in arranging everything.

Mum and Dad had transferred me some money for my birthday so we decided to put it towards a cooking class. We chose to do a Peruvian cooking and Pisco Sour class with ex Chef Chris at Cusco Culinary. Luckily we were the only ones who had registered for the group class so we ended up having our own private tour. Our host Chris, had lived in Australia for a year so we happily spoke in Australian English to him! A first in a long time!

We toured the market and collected the ingredients we needed. Chris introduced us to many new and interesting food items. The meat section was most intriguing with whole hearts, cows faces, hoofs, cuy and even cows penis hanging on display. The Peruvians are exceptional at the nose to tail eating game.

We scaled the other aisles, with each stand in every aisle selling almost the exact same products. There were aisles with rows of only homemade cheeses, fruits, potatoes (of which we were told there are 250 varieties in Peru) and bread. The bread sold was imported from a town around 30 minutes away. It was baked by artisan bakers using traditional techniques and ovens. We were told of one tradition, whereby if one of these sacred bakers were to die, no bread should be baked on that day.

Chris was about the only local we met who didn’t buy his meat from the local market! All meat was unrefrigerated and out for the flies to indulge. It’s always been a curiosity of ours, how do the locals avoid getting sick?

So minus the meat, we collected vegetables and fruit, fresh decorative flowers and some Ecuadorian chocolate to complete our dishes. We headed back towards his kitchen which was in a dilapidated building, he suggested, hundreds of years old.

First up we made ‘maracuia’ Pisco Sours... passionfruit. Bloody delicious. We went on to make 3 different types of white fish ceviche, a non traditional quinoa tomale and a fruit dessert with delicious homemade praline/honeycomb. It was a really great way to explore the Peruvian culture.

We always love a free walking tour and Cusco's version did not disappoint. Although we had already taken ourselves to the local market and had again visited it in our cooking tour, our third tour of the market still offered us new information and funny anecdotes. A few stand outs included...
*For woman who were having trouble with fertility, they needed to purchase a dead frog from a seller, take the frog to a juice bar at the market and have it blended with a specific Peruvian fruit. The concoction apparently had woman getting pregnant very soon after. We just couldn’t understand why the word hadn’t spread to Australia, so much cheaper than IVF.
*The other fabulous product was the hoof jelly. A gorgeous caramel colour, the jelly, sold in a large ice-cream glass, was said to include collagen from the cows hoof and worked miracles for woman’s skin. Sounded delicious!
* the witch doctors stalls were filled with interesting offerings of all kinds of herbal concoctions and candy bars for pachamama, even mummified llama foetuses as the ultimate gift to pachamama.
* the item I really wanted to invest in but couldn’t, were the gorgeous little ceramic bulls that were found on top of every home in Peru. The pair of Bulls were placed on top of the roof, offering protection to the house below. I would have loved to bring some back to Northcote.

Seeming as we were in the home of Pisco, we decided a Pisco tasting at the restaurant named 'The Pisco Museum' was a must. On arrival the bar tender described the $40 tasting to us and asked, ‘Do you normally drink straight spirits?’ When our answer was ‘Not really’, he replied with, ‘None at all, not even whiskey?’... when we again replied, ‘No’, he asked if we were sure we wanted to go ahead! At this point we really should have taken his advice, but when in Peru, do as the Peruvians! So we sat as he poured us four straight pours of Pisco. It was just like a wine tasting, he described each Pisco, including the region the grapes had grown, the expected aromas, flavours and mouth feels and suggested we take a small sip of each, with a small sip of water in between, then start the round again. We sipped the first tasting and it was like our heads had exploded. We were trying to look cool, and I'm sure we were absolutely not pulling it off! We got through the first round and just couldn't bring ourselves to tackle the second. I decided to put my big girl pants on and asked if we could possibly have the rest of out tasting mixed into a cocktail. FAIL on our behalf!

We were lucky enough to catch Doug and Kelly one more time in Cusco and had dinner together at a great wood fire pizza restaurant. We really enjoyed our catch ups with them, always easy, always fun and always more than travel chat.