Cusco and Pisac

I loved Cusco, and am so happy we devoted a lot of time to staying here. The city is the perfect balance of traditional and modern, and local and touristic. There certainly are a lot of tourists in Cusco since it is the gateway to the Sacred Valley, but I never felt overwhelmed or like the city was only catering to tourists. There are plenty of local restaurants and shops, including a couple of  great markets.

 You can find some great deals on textiles here too, but definitely negotiate. I got a great alpaca sweater for only $25.

In another instance of good luck (just like the festival we happened upon), we accidentally found ourselves in the middle of a tourism promotion video that the city of Cusco was producing. There were a ton of dancers in traditional costumes, and a live band who was lip syncing to music. It was all being filmed by a crew of videographers and drones. We watched as they performed several takes. It was so fun. Sadly, we weren't in the final version of the song, but it was a fun experience.

We also ate in some really great restaurants including a cevicheria, a vegetarian place, and a steakhouse (the veggie kabobs were great!). Of course we also frequented the local bakery, La Valeriana. Sadly, I kept forgetting to take pictures at the bakery, but trust me. It's worth a stop.

We did more than just eat and shop, of course. We also took a day trip to Pisac, a local town with a big market and some nice ruins. At this point, we had already seen a fair amount of ruins, so we weren't sure whether it was worth it to visit Pisac. Thankfully, we got great advice that told us this couldn't be missed.

What we weren't told though, was that the ruins are at the top of a giant hill and it is a strenuous hike. We actually took a taxi up to the top of the mountain and wound our way down the mountain seeing the sites. It took us about two and a half hours to get down, and we were VERY thankfully we didn't do it in the reverse order. The people climbing up looked pretty rough. You can really feel how high up Cusco is on this hike.

Once we made our way down, we stopped at the local market to watch locals haggle for fresh produce and flowers. There were also a fair amount of tchotches for sale, which is where we picked up the gifts for Zahara's teachers.

With the horseback riding, the food, the Chabad, the views, the people...Cusco really has it all. I loved this town and highly recommend to everyone. Have you been? Let me know what you think!

See our other stops in Peru:
Itinerary
Lima in Two Days
Getting to the Sacred Valley
Machu Picchu
Maras and Moray
Horseback Riding in the Sacred Valley

Horseback Riding In The Sacred Valley

One of the things I was most excited about doing in Peru was going horseback riding through the Sacred Valley. Because this was a must-do for me, I made sure to arrange everything in advance. I assumed we would be part of  a larger group, but Dan and I actually had a private tour with Valencia Travel.

We did the half-day tour from Cusco that takes you to four Incan ruins: Qenko, Puca Pucara, Tambomachay, and Sacsayhuaman. The price of admission to the sites was not included in the tour. We purchased the tourist ticket for Cusco which allowed us entry into 16 sites, including Maras which we saw the day before. It's not cheap, but it is worth it. You can buy the ticket at any entry site.

The day started off on such a funny foot. The tour director asked me, in English, how comfortable with horses I am and how well I speak Spanish. I told him that I had been around horses before but only as a tourist or summer camper, and that my Spanish is OK, but not fluent. He immediately turns to our horse wrangler and says, in Spanish, "she's fluent and very comfortable around horses." Umm...not quite what I said! It led to hilarious interactions between us and our non-English-speaking wrangler who took us galloping through the fields! Thankfully it all worked out well and we had an amazing time.

The way the tour works is you ride from site to site, and at each site are met by your English-speaking guide who will show you around the ruins. Our guide happened to be 

Quechuan, or an indigenous person. Just like when we went to Egypt and had a Coptic Christian as a tour guide or in Jordan when we toured with a Bedouin, I always find it interesting to hear a minority view of the culture and society. We were especially lucky in this case because he could tell us more of the meaning behind the ruins and how the Incan culture and traditions continue to this day.

Very interestingly, I kept trying to speak to him in Spanish, but he kept switching back to English. I finally asked him which language he prefers. He told me he preferred English because "Spanish is the language of my oppressors." Wow! That was a new one. I had no idea that in Peru, the Quechuan people along with other indigenous tribes were persecuted and not allowed to practice their customs and languages. It is only recently, he said, that the Peruvian government realized that a lot of tourists are interested in native cultures and are starting to use that as a selling point. It was an eye-opening conversation for sure.

We also visited an alpaca and llama farm. I mean, come on. Look at these cuties!

The ruins were great and the riding was exceptional. I was worried that the ruins would be a bit of  a let-down after Machu Picchu, but they are so different and gave me an even deeper appreciation of how sophisticated this society was.

See our other stops in Peru:
Itinerary
Lima in Two Days
Getting to the Sacred Valley
Machu Picchu
Maras and Moray
Cusco and Pisac

Maras and Moray in the Sacred Valley

When we were planning our trip to Peru, we did a lot of research about where to go and how long to stay in each place. There is so much to do in Peru, that unless you narrow it down, you can quickly get overwhelmed and miss a lot of great stuff. We decided to spend the majority of our time in Sacred Valley, and it was a fantastic decision. We had plenty of time to see the sites without feeling rushed. It was the perfect pace that allowed it to really feel like a vacation, with plenty of time for tea and pastries--just the way we like to travel.

We spent a day exploring two of the most famous Incan sites in the Sacred Valley--Maras and Moray. The easiest way for us to explore was by hiring a local guide in Ollantaytambo to take us around the sites and then drop us off in Cusco where we were staying that night. Our guide was very friendly and spoke English well.

Our first stop was Moray, which was where the Incan people would conduct agricultural experiments. I had seen pictures of this site before, but the pictures don't do it justice. It's really hard to tell the scale of this place without actually standing there, but the tiers are each several feet high, and in total it is almost 100 feet deep! There's also a temperature variance of as much as 27 degrees F from the surface-level to the deepest tier. What an amazing feat of science to build these perfect tiers and understand the concepts of experimentation. Because of the Incans, Peru today is known for their more than 2,000 varieties of potatoes among many other things!

The second stop was Maras, which is a salt flat that pre-dates the Incans, and is still used by locals. Here, our guide really shined. He told us the history of these salt flats, explained how they worked, and how each one is allocated to a Maras family. 

Each is pond owned by a family in Maras who harvests the salt and sells for income. The size of the pond depends on how big the family is.

After a fantastic day out, we headed to Cusco for our first of three nights in Cusco. It was a Friday night, and we heard that there was a vibrant Chabad House in Cusco. Chabads are found around the world and serve as a Jewish center for travelers. Dan and I have been to a few Chabads, including in England, Thailand, and throughout the United States, and we thought it would be nice to have a hot kosher meal. It was lovely!

It's one of the largest and most active Chabad Houses in the world, which makes sense given the number of Israelis who come to visit Machu Picchu each year. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures because it was the sabbath, but there were easily two hundred people there for a Friday night dinner. It was a great test of my Hebrew since the whole dinner was conducted in Hebrew. Thankfully we sat next to a few nice people who all had fascinating travel stories (and spoke English!). It was our first glimpse into the wonderful city of Cusco!

See our other stops in Peru:
Itinerary
Lima in Two Days
Getting to the Sacred Valley
Machu Picchu
Horseback Riding in the Sacred Valley
Cusco and Pisac

Philadelphia Food Recommendations

Earlier this summer I traveled to Philadelphia for a quick weekend away with my friend Dina. She lives in New Jersey and I'm in DC, so Philly is the perfect half-way spot. We've been there before together so we already had a few ideas of what we wanted to do--and let's be honest, eat.

I wanted to jot down my favorite food places in Philly. I've been to each of these at least once, and some I visit every time I'm in Philly. It's hard to squeeze in as much deliciousness in a weekend as I want, but a girl can try! Here are my top suggestions.

Dinner

• Morimoto, 723 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
• Some of the best, freshest sushi you’ll find. Chef Morimoto was an Iron Chef in both the American and original Japanese versions. They restaurant is beautiful and chic, and they have a lot of non-sushi items too if you’re not into raw fish. Last time I was here I had the wasabi black cod, and Dina had the 28-day aged steak. Both plates were licked clean.
• Barbuzzo, 110 S 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
• Tiny Mediterranean small-plates restaurant. The portions were pretty big so take what they say is a serving size with a grain of salt. The peach and fig salad was delicious, as were the branzino, and the cavolfiore pizza. The restaurant is tiny though, so make a reservation.

Brunch

• El Ray, 2013 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
• Yummy Mexican food. I especially like their brunch options like huevos rancheros and breakfast burrito, but their lunch looked great too.
• Reading Terminal Market, 51 N 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
• A smorgasbord of deliciousness. It's a bustling market that has tons of local vendors selling everything from fresh cheese and meats, to scratch-made sauces, to sweets. There are several food stalls and a busy seating area where you have to fight for seats during peak times. It's worth it though. I had a fancy grilled cheese at Meltkraft. The Brielle is brie, cranberry chutney, caramelized onions , and pine nuts on brioche. Yum!

• Continental Mid-Town, 51 N 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
• The food was good—nothing crazy, but unexpectedly good. But what’s super fun about the restaurant is that you can sit in a swing and eat! The design of the place is really amazing.
  

Dessert

• Capogiro Gelato, 117 S 20th St, Philadelphia, PA 19103
• Super creamy, delicious gelato. I really enjoy the chocolate banana, the amaretto, and any weirdo flavors they have that day (tomato and basil was an awesome one; cilantro is refreshing).

Note: many of my recommendations are from the Starr restaurant group. I really love everyone I’ve been to (including the Dandelion, that isn’t on this list but is a solid choice too). He has fun concepts that really resonate with me.