South America 2016: Lima to Cusco

Our morning in Lima started early at 5am as Team Sexy Llamas gathered in the hotel restaurant for a quick and cold breakfast. We take a short flight from Lima to Cusco to meet our guide, Leo. From the airport, it's a short 15 min drive to the Prisma Hotel. Upon check-in, we are served coca tea. The leaves of the plant are meant to aid with the altitude and is usually served in teas, made into candy, or for the hardcore, the leaves can be chewed raw. The coca plant is also where cocaine is derived from. When consumed in its unprocessed form, there are of course no side effects but apparently drug tests can show cocaine use even if you just consumed the tea, candy or chewed leaves.

Left: Descending into Cusco – the hills of Peru waiting for us to conquer them. Right: A nice warm cup of Coca Tea

After dumping our bags in our room, it is time for a walking tour of the city. Our first stop is the local market. It reminds us of the wet markets of Singapore - with a mix of fruit and vegetable vendors, meat vendors, spices and dried goods specialists and even some food and clothing stalls. There is even an entire section dedicated to "juice bars".

Cooked food stalls that remind us of Singapore

Just some of the 4,000+ varieties of potatoes that can be found in the Andes being sold in the market

Left to right: Varieties of corn, varieties of grains and some dehydrated potatoes

Huge loaves of flat bread (a little sweet), more grains and an amazing selection of fresh fruit and veges all grown organically in the local region

The new hipster juice bar

The markets lead us into the main square in Cusco while admiring the city's architecture. We are fortunate enough to see a marching band from the local high school performing as part of a parade leading up to the following week's Peru Independence Day. It's a short stroll through a small alleyway where we get our first glimpse of Inca architecture. Essentially, a number of buildings are built on or around existing Inca architecture. These are easily identified by the large smooth stones that have been immaculately cut and fit together perfectly like a jigsaw puzzle.

All girl high school marching band

A few hidden laneways and alpacas later, we arrive at our lunch destination. On the menu today is a local curried chicken dish and local specialty - stir fried alpaca.

Notice the stone "bricks" on the bottom half of the buildings - typical Incan architecture.

Life in Peru is colourful indeed.

Lunch time! Looks like everyone already misses being connected. Wi-Fi anyone?

After lunch, it's a short rest back at the hotel before we head over to the G Adventures Sungate office for a briefing on the upcoming activities, namely the four-day Inca Trail Hike. We are given instructions on what to pack, what we can rent, how much weight we can give to the porters and a high-level schedule. Then, it's a quick stop for a simple soup dinner and a visit to the supermarket for hiking "supplies" (okay - snacks. It was snacks. We bought lots of snacks.). Then it's back to the hotel for a rest before we start up again at 7:30am to head to the Sacred Valley and the town of Ollantaytambo.

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