Arriving in Cusco.....

An early morning flight to Cusco was on the agenda for day 1 of the tour.......

Flying in was a little hairy! Cusco is at an elevation of 11,200ft and is surrounded by rather high mountains!

......a bit too close for comfort........

Happy to land.....

First stop was to check out the Inca palace of Koricancha which had the Convent Santo Domingo built on top of it......

When the Conquitadores arrived this palace had all walls covered in gold and precious stones ......not much is now left of it!  Still one can see the beautifully aligned blocks....

... although one could see some earthquake evidence....

This was the main palace of the Inca ruler, Atahualpa ........ he was told if he allowed the conquistadores to take all the gold from the walls etc they would leave his people in peace. They killed him instead! Not nice!

Then on to  Sacsayhuaman, a fortress built by the Incas. This was plundered until a few decades ago to contstruct homes in Cusco!
The remaining walls are huge.......with massive boulders.....

Then on to Pisac, a small village with a native handicraft market......

At one point we were able to get a view of the Sacred Valley,

which was to be where we were staying for the first few nights. It is lower than Cusco and so seen as a place to somewhat acclimatize to the high altitude in the area.

We were booked into the Aranwa Sacred Valley hotel which was great. After check in we were greeted by the resident alpaca.........

and the peacock......

 The grounds were beautiful.... it had been an original hacienda

 with its own private church.

The pool looked inviting......but the temperature wasn't warm enough to get me to go in!

Joining a tour to Machu Picchu.....

Not being a tour type of person I felt this might present a challenge! However it seems to be difficult to get a reservation at the Sanctuary Hotel in Machu Picchu.  It only has around 30 rooms and gets prebooked by tour groups! Likewise in the Galapagos.....I preferred to stay in a hotel rather than being on a cruise boat for a week!

I decided to go on the Odyssyes Unlimited  'Machu Picchu to the Galapagos' tour. They arrange the Smithsonian and some Alumni tours and actually seem to be extremely efficient! It helped that there were only 12 persons on the tour...... good as an initiation to tours!

I joined the tour  at the Westin hotel in Lima. This is a very comfortable but typical US business type hotel!

 Great room....

.....with a view of the blocked freeway!

Traffic seems to be as bad in Lima as on 101 in the Bay Area!

We did tour Lima on the first day and visited the MALI museum.

The museum has a lot of interesting Pre Columbian ceramics......

........ and textiles......

....and in the Colonial art section an attempt by the Spanish Conquistadores to explain the Christian Holy Trinity to the natives!

Eating out in Lima....continued!

So moving up on the list of 50 best restaurants in the world I went to #5 .....Central
This is very different from Maido....... the chef Virgilio Martinez  likes to collect unknown ( at least to most of the world) ingredients from the jungle or the Andes and he offers a tasting menu which is described as being from different elevations.

Again the entrance is discreet, and was also manned.

 Initially when I made a reservation all tables were booked and I was booked in to eat in the bar area.

This was acceptable, however when I got there, there had been a cancellation and there was a table available in the main restaurant room.
I was invited to go into the kitchen...... they were obviously used to this! And it looks as though the chef Virgilio was there!

This was not quite the same as the 13 course meal I had had at Maido.
It was only 11 courses! And it really was an experience.... rather than good food, in my opinion!

The 11 course menu was called the Ecosystems menu....... and it states at what elevation each course comes from.....

...so getting started ...first course...... Rock Mollusks ( sea snail!).....3 dishes appeared........

Just in case you think this may be quite a lot to eat....look carefully! Food was in the first dish, green cracker only on second, and brown implement to eat first dish on last one!
I felt I needed to ask each time what exactly I could actually eat!
......then  Thick Stems.....no idea what it was!

with its accompanying crisps...

then Waters of Nanay...could have done without the decoration of  piranha heads........they were just there to support the crisp! and the edible part (orange color) on the right was not exactly filling!

next....Forest Cotton... described as river shrimp...... just the two pieces!

..next High Jungle.......finally some food! in the form of bread!  I asked what I could eat and was told just the top.....it was sitting on pebbles!!

and the air potato I was looking forward to was just a crisp!

Marine Soil... a sea urchin

Land of Corn......crisps  and ???!

Sea Coral

High Andes Mountains...

Amazonian White and Medicinals and Plant Dyes...served together!

The presentation was absolutely superb! However the actual food content was minimal, even with the 11 courses!  However happy to have had the experience!

Eating out in Lima........

Unbelievably Lima has 3 restaurants in the top 50 restaurants of the world!
This presented a challenge for me  ..............  I only managed to eat at two of them!
The first was very close to my Spanish classes in Miraflores, #8 on the 2017 list........ Maido.

This is a superb Japanese Peruvian fusion restaurant....
The restaurant itself is modern and very lowkey......
The entry is manned... in case you did not realize you had reached it.......

... and then the choice .....to either go with their 13 course menu or  a la carte!
Difficult for a first time guest!
One surprising observation.........very little English was  spoken at the tables....mainly Spanish! So  it was not just a tourist restaurant!
I had no idea what the dishes might be that I would be served  and would forget once eaten......but they kept assuring me that I would have a list at the end.......
So I went with the menu.....the Nikkei Experience.......

the first offering...... great! Deceptively called Snacks!

next...... Soda Ceviche

and then.......Dim Sum

and then........Chicharron Sandwich....  hamburger??

and.....then......Sea Nigiri

and................Lapas Ceviche

....and.........Cuy San

.......  a..n..d...............Gindara Misoyaki

and.....Sudado

...and...... Beef Short Rib 50 hours.... lets count up....how many more??!!

....and......Sea Urchin Rice

and finally...Reef.......dessert.......phew!

and......Mussel

Finally the list!

This was a very long meal..........however the actual courses were minimal in content......so not as difficult as it looks!

Beautiful presentation through-out......and the taste of each dish was fantastic! An experience!