PART II: CUSCO
From Lima we flew in to the ancient city of Cusco (the historical capital of the Inca Empire).
As you land and make your way to baggage claim, you’ll find a basket of Coca leaves. Grab one or a few and just begin to chew! Cusco sits at around 11,000 feet above sea level, so there’s a very high likelihood you will feel it. I felt it in shortness of breath and my heart started to race if I walked too fast. Strangest feeling ever! From Cusco, we did Rainbow Mountain and Machu Picchu. Read on for details!
Cusco sits at about 11,000 feet above sea level, and boy do you feel it! Make sure you take altitude medication at least a day or two before you make your way to Cusco. We spent Day 1 getting used to the altitude and just roaming around Cusco. There’s a lot to see. Check out Pachapapa for lunch or dinner. Some blogs said you would need a reservation but we were just fine without one–and there were 5 of us.
The streets of Cusco are rather hilly so be sure to wear comfortable shoes. Because of the height, Cusco is a bit colder than Lima. You can walk to the Plaza de Armas in Cusco, which is the city center. We stayed at Illa Hotel, which was really conveniently located close to most of what you’d want to see in Cusco.
RAINBOW MOUNTAIN. This is definitely a highly underrated site. Rainbow Mountain, also known as Vinicunca, is a little over 17,000 feet above sea level. We climbed to about 15,000. There was no way my body could’ve handled the tip of that mountain. Because it’s so high up, I could feel my heart beating in my throat at several points in the last 15 minutes of the climb. It’s about a 2-ish hour climb but I promise you the views are so worth it once you get to the top. My brothers and I hiked. My dad took a pony up–but he did that mostly because he saw my mom pass out at the base of the mountain and refused to do the same. You can ask your tour guide to negotiate a good rate for the ponies and the last 10 minutes you have to climb (if you want to get the gorgeous views).
We used a tour group called Rainbow Mountain Travels for our trip to Rainbow Mountain and it was well worth it! They pick you up from your hotel, take you to a bigger van, and you head out about 2 hours to Rainbow Mountain in this van with about 15 or so other people. The pick up is really early, but the advantage of that is that you are the only tour group on Rainbow Mountain. The others were climbing when we began descending. So we had it all to ourselves. Also, a brunch type meal and dinner on the way down was included. It wasn’t the best but I don’t think you want to eat heavy any way before climbing Rainbow Mountain.
Fun fact about Rainbow Mountain–it didn’t look like this until 2015 when the rock weathered away to reveal these bright colors.
MACHU PICCHU
This is what everyone comes to Cusco for, and trust me, it does not disappoint! Once again, we used a tour group because it included pick up from the hotel, drop off to the train station , the train ticket to and from Machu Picchu, and the entrance to the site. The entire trip to Machu Picchu from Cusco took about 4 hours and the train was great! Super clean, beautiful views, and there was even some on board live entertainment! There was an alpaca fashion show (you’ll see a ton of alpacas and alpaca-wear around Peru).
Cusco Itinerary
Day 1: Arrive in Cusco, tour the Plaza de Armas, grab dinner at Pachapapa, call it an early night.
Day 2: Wake up at 5am to start the drive to Rainbow Mountain. Spend all day there. Get home, order some food for dinner, and call it a night.
Day 3: Machu Picchu. Train to Aguas Calientes then a bus up to Machu Picchu. Tour group includes the ticket to the site as well. Train ride back. Ate in Aguas Calientes. Got back to Cusco late.