After a bit of drama with my doctor getting medications for the altitude, we landed in a city that is ~3,400 metres above sea level. The city is called Cusco and is the base city for Machu Picchu. We flew to Cusco by passing through Miami and Lima. We didn’t feel the altitude at this point but took it easy that day. We roamed the city a bit, ate some really good food, settled into our AirBnB and met our tour company for a debrief session that night.

The views from the plane were amazing – you were amongst the mountains. The airport was a bit old and small, but we soon found our ride. Our host was gracious enough to set us up with someone when we landed around 11 am in Cusco.

We were about a 15-minute walk from Plaza de Armas, the main square in Cusco. We had a reservation at a restaurant for 3:30 pm but were starving after we had checked in and showered. Since we had a few hours, we got some coffee drinks and some empanadas. They were really good! We had arrived in South America! The place was called Van Gogh café.

We then walked around looking for bottled water and realized things were inexpensive in Peru compared to Canada. The currency is called Sol and one Canadian dollar is about three Sol.

The meal we had at Chicha, the restaurant where we had a reservation, was about $30-$40 for two people but included an appetizer and dessert. We had ceviche as an appetizer, and this was probably my favourite dish on the trip!

We walked around some of the markets, checked out a chocolate museum (they had chocolate shots…!) and headed home after meeting the tour group for the debrief. We had to be up at 4:30 am the next morning so we went to bed around 9:30 pm. The tour company we used was Valencia Travel and our tour guide was Henry – I would recommend both!