Our journey to Peru started on a late-night Virgin America flight. We flew from SFO to LAX, where we spent the night before taking an early morning flight to San Salvador, then finally to Lima.

Día 1 (Lima): We arrived in Lima in the afternoon and stayed for one night.

I was hoping we could go to the beach but the weather was dreary and the beaches of Lima aren't really for swimming and sunbathing anyway.

We stayed in the Miraflores neighborhood where a marching band welcomed us.

Virgen Milagrosa Iglesia en Parque Kennedy

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first taste of Pisco, a regional brandy

We wandered the neighborhood for hours, but knew the highlight of Lima would be dinner at Astrid y Gaston. Gaston Acurio is Peru's celebrity chef. He recently opened his first US restaurant called La Mar Cebicheria in SF (it's delicious as well!).

Dining room of Astrid y Gaston

We requested the chef's tasting menu when we made reservations. All the dishes were presented in Spanish so it was difficult to understand every component of the dishes. There was definitely a strong Asian influence in most dishes.

Peruvian seabass with onion, pepper, corn, carrot in fish stock sauce I wish there was a picture of the bread basket...it was one of the best selections of fresh baked bread I've ever had.

Causa: whipped Andean potato topped with guacamole, egg, pepper

Marcovy duck ravioli

Madai in soy-kelp reduction, garnished with onion

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Trio of desserts

...more dessert

Día 2 (Cusco): We took a 1 hour flight to Cusco, the oldest living city in the Americas and the historic capital of the Inca empire. The first human settlements date back 3,000 years.

We flew over Mt. Salkantay, part of the Peruvian Andes. We would hike its ridge on the first day of the 4-day trek. Machu Picchu is directly north of Salkantay.

Cusco sits about 10,800 ft about sea level. The consumption of Coca tea (mate de coca) increases the absorption of oxygen in blood, which helps combat altitude sickness, and has a marked digestive action. The leaves of the coca plant contain several alkaloids including small amounts of cocaine. I drank coca tea all the time since I was worried about how I'd adjust to the altitude.

Plaza de Armas, the main square of Cusco

La Compañia de Jesus Iglecias

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Dan got a tip from a girl who used to live in Cusco about where to find authentic ceviche.

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Cusqueña (local beer) and Inca Kola (tastes like bubble gum)

Cebiche de Corvina

Chicharrones Mixtos (seafood)

We spent our first day in Cusco acclimating to the altitude. This meant lots of naps and drinking lots of water and mate de coca. That night, we had cheap Chifa (Chinese) food for dinner.

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Día 3 (Cusco): We had another day in Cusco before our trek. When planning the trip, we hadn't planned what we'd be doing before or after our trek. But plenty of tours are offered in and around the city, but we decided to go to the Pisac ruins since it didn't look too far on the map.

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So we jumped into a taxi where the driver said he'd get us there in an hour. The most common taxis were these tiny Hyundai's. Dan always struggled to get into and out of them. On our drive up hills and out of Cusco, the taxi sputtered. The driver pulled over, opened the hood to check who knows what, went under the car to crank something. After a couple of failed starts, the driver SPIT into the engine.

After 20 minutes of debating whether we'd continue on our journey even if the taxi started, we requested to head back down to Cusco. We stopped at Sacsayhuamán where we saw hundreds of locals heading to some sort of festival in the grounds of the Incan ruin.

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Some believe the walls of Sacsayhuamán were used to form the head of the Puma that Sacsayhuamán along with Cuzco form when seen from above. Like much Inca stonework, there is still mystery surrounding how they were constructed.

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Thousands of locals came to watch the festivities.

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