Cusco for couples

We are Melissa and Aleksejs, and we build DreamJourney routes together. Melissa grew up in Peru, and Aleksejs made it home after years on the road. Cusco is one of the three cities we write routes for, and the photographs with us in them are our own.

We walked the old town, rode out to Moray and Maras, and went to Machu Picchu. We liked all of it, the food included. What we remember most is the people.

The first evening

Cusco sits at 3,400 meters. The first evening is for eating lightly, drinking plenty of water, and leaving alcohol for another night. Most hotels offer coca tea, which may ease the altitude.

A short walk around the center is enough on that first day. We wrote about why the order of days matters here in Why altitude changes the shape of a Cusco trip.

The old town on foot

We walked the old town end to end, and it is the best way to see how the city was built. Much of colonial Cusco stands on Inca stone. Spanish houses, balconies, and churches rise from walls fitted without mortar, so a single corner can show both cities at once.

Look up for the balconies, and down for the Inca stone.

San Blas, the old artisans' quarter, climbs above the Plaza de Armas on steep lanes, with cafés along the way. From the hills around the center, the city turns into a field of tiled roofs, with the mountains closing in on every side.

Moray and Maras by quad bike

Our day out to Moray and Maras was on quad bikes, across open high ground with snow on the peaks behind us.

At Moray, the Inca terraces drop in rings, and the rim and the floor can differ by as much as fifteen degrees on the same afternoon. At Maras, the salt pans are fed by an underground saline spring, not a river, and the shallow pools are still worked by hand by local families.

If you would rather go by van, the half-day tour in our catalog adds Chinchero and its weavers to the same two stops. We compared it with the full valley day in The Sacred Valley from Cusco: a full day or a half day?.

Alpacas, and the train

Our alpacas were in the Sacred Valley, at a small farm in the town where trains to Machu Picchu leave.

Most trains to the citadel leave from Ollantaytambo and take about an hour and a half to Aguas Calientes. From there a bus climbs to the gate in twenty-five to thirty minutes.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was built in the fifteenth century on a ridge between two peaks, roughly two hundred structures in all. It stands at 2,430 meters, almost a thousand below Cusco, so the walking comes easier than it does in the city.

From Cusco it is a long day, about twelve hours door to door. We wrote about how it runs in Machu Picchu from Cusco in one day.

The people

What stayed with us longest was not a place. People in Cusco are kind and quick to smile, and that warmth made every day there easier.

Places fill a route. People are what a trip is remembered by.

An evening for two

Cusco's evenings turn cool quickly at this altitude, and they are best spent indoors at a good table. Nuna Raymi builds tasting-style plates around native crops, with Inca masonry lit by candles in the evening. Inka Grill has balcony tables over the Plaza de Armas.

Tunupa, also on the Plaza de Armas, serves dinner between sets of Andean music and dance. Much of what you hear comes from the charango, a small Andean lute. We wrote about the food in What to eat in Cusco.

Our days, in a route

The old town, Moray and Maras, and Machu Picchu each have their place in our free routes for 3 days, 5 days, and 7 days in Cusco.