As good Asians we should never devour a plate before taking a photograph of the platable, even in our most starved moments. As such we are accumulating an album of delicious food and drinks for your enjoyment. By no means does this include all the delicacies we had because if it does, we would have to go on forever:)

================= Food =================

Ceviche
The national dish of raw fish is featured in many Peru travel advice as a must try. With a sour, savoury and fresh taste, it instantly became my favourite.

Traditional-style ceviche as in the featured image is a cold dish comes with strips of fresh purple onion, chopped red hot chili and herb (suspected to be parsley), tossed in lime juice. A thick slice of sweet potato and thumb-sized juicy crunchy corns effectively relieves any tongue biting spiciness.

It goes without saying that the fish has to be very fresh. Otherwise one lunch of indulgence would turn the next day’s long distance bus travel into a nightmare.

Quinoa
First day on the 2km high sacred valley of Pisac, I came down with bad headache. I felt too nauseous even with the good old coca tea (banned in many countries due to its close relationship to cocaine, but supposed to be really good for altitude sickness). Fortunately a bowl of wholesome quinoa vegetable soup came to my timely rescue. It is such a comfort food in cold windy days.

Causa
Another traditional Peruvian cold dish although alarmingly similar to a sushi roll in presentation. The only difference from sushi appears to be the substitution of rice with potato puree. It can roll in anything from shrimp, chicken, cucumber, tomato, boiled egg, to assorted sauces, olives and pickles. We have had the luck to taste our self-prepared causas in the cooking class in Cusco.

Chifa
We have been repeatedly told, even by the cheerful staff at the Toronto check-in counter, that the Chinese food in Peru is a jewel. Chifa restaurants, named after “chi fan” or “have a meal” in Chinese, are found throughout the country.

We tried. And we miss Singapore and China even more dearly…

An order of “chaufa” always comes with a mountain of rice stir-fried in soya sauce with chunky chicken, cucumber, spring onions. While it is good for health that the taste is not so heavy, I start to miss my spicy and flavourful Sichuan dishes…My cubed chicken, my sweet and vinegar pork ribs….

Meat, Meat, Meat
Alpaca:  Cute chubby animal who produces steak way better than beef and pork, and wool superior to sheep.

Cuy. Cute little hamsters who became excellent Peruvian national dish.

Anticucho:  Grilled Beef Heart. Way too heaty.

Chicharron. Deep fried pork belly, chicken, fish, octopus… Original from Spain? Sure! But who does it better than the peruvians?

Adobo. Entirely different from the Filipino adobo, this version, again rooting from Spain, is a heavy meaty stew for Sunday breakfast. Known as the hangover food.

Salteña
Originated from Bolivia, it is also a favorite of Taiwan author San Mao who featured this food in her books. It looks exactly like a curry puff, but filled with beef stew, eggs, raisins. It is so juicy that half way the delicious soup will start dripping down your wrist. All the years of xiao long bao eating were for nothing!

Fresh Produce
Avocados, Bananas, Purple Corns, Potatoes (What? Aren’t they peanuts??)

================= Drinks =================

Pisco Sour
Pisco is a hard liquor made from grapes. Ice blended with lime juice and syrup, topped with beaten egg white at the end. A very refreshing alcoholic drink. The few dots on top form an essential part of the pisco sour identity.

Inca Kola
No. 1 soft drink in Peru. Coca-Cola couldn’t beat it. Therefore they bought it! Tastes like cream soda. I quite like it but Karsten prefers his Coca-Cola (yawwwwnz -.-)

Chicha Morada
My favourite drink! Made from purple corn mixed with some fruit juice (apple, pineapple, etc). Takes fresh and sweetish. I imagine it is a cooling drink too, perfect for all the meaty heatiness.

Chicha de jora
This is a fermented version of the chicha drink and more reddish in color. A less romantic name is “corn beer”. It is intensity is a random variable. I had it twice at the same picanteria. The second time (picture below) gave me a whole week of tummy problems – the worst of the trip so far.

================ Cakes, Sweets==================

Cakes
We had some of the best cakes ever in Peru. Moist and buttery. They are certainly generous with the use of cream and condensed milk.

Manjar
A creamy spread of condensed milk used in at least 90% of the Peruvian desserts. How sinful!

After the rather chilly Chile we were keen to get some warmer weather, but also looking forward to meet again our dear family in Arequipa, indulge more in the great Peruvian food and finetune our Spanish skills!

Coming back to Arequipa felt like we never left and we quickly got back to our previous rhythm. Going for Spanisch class in the morning, working on our exam preparations in the afternoon and having nice gatherings with family and other guests in the evening.

As we are both on our last few actuarial papers, these are getting bigger and tougher, with a study volume of 1000 pages and more. We realized we were already lagging behind considerably (a typical study schedule for my exam allocates 4 months of preparation – studying every day of the week!) and decided to switch one gear higher. We therefore stayed a second week in Arequipa, this time without Spanish class. Anyway we were getting enough practice in the evenings

After that we moved on to Lima, complementing our studying with some further explorations of the capital’s artistic and historic districts and of its excellent restaurants.

We also opted for more unconventional accommodations this time. First staying in a tiny Airbnb room at a great location within popular Miraflores district, where we were the only ones and had the big living room all to ourselves.
Next we moved to the neighboring up-coming district Baranco, which in the olden days was a beach resort area for the upper class and stayed in one of the classy beach villas – turned hotel. The only reason we got it at a decent price is because the family run hotel only recently opened and was still far from being ready. Smaller maintenance was ongoing and most rooms were still lacking few basic amenities. But I just couldn’t resist, being intrigued by the beautifully restored rooms, with original wooden parquet, huge ceilings, original doors and windows and the also rest of the hotel full of nice antiques and decorations. The owner had already spent two full years restoring the building, with a lot of passion. Only a shame that, while single-glazing was adequate at begin of 20^th century, that was no longer true now with a busy street just next door. After one noisy night we moved from our romantic turret-room with sky-ceiling to another huge king-bed room.

After that we moved to a very quiet and cute house, which an ex-lawyer had turned into four bright and beautiful boutique rooms

Saying good-bye to Peru in style, we treated ourselves to a sumptuous dinner at an acclaimed restaurant, with an 8 resp. 11 course dinner of local flavors in unusual preparation. Like the gorgeous “cuy three ways” which came with cuy pate and crispy skin or something as simple as a variation of Amazonian tomatoes, with incredible flavors.

[See image gallery at 2young2simple.debraaf.eu]

Off we went Saturday morning in a van with 10 other tourists (half of which Peruvians), gaining slowly in altitude to reach again the Andean highlands. The road passed through a large nature reserve, protecting the timid Vicuna, cousin of the Alpaca. The Vicuna produces a finer wool than the Alpaca (and finer than cashmere), but at much lower quantities. After being nearly extinct from hunting, the vicuna was put under strict protection and kept non-domesticated, roaming freely the nature reserves. Considering the high worth of a vicuna, one kg of raw wool costs a few hundred $ and just a scarf will put you back around $2’000, the recovery of the population is the more remarkable. Nowadays the population has grown back from less than 10’000 to more than 150’000, roaming Peru and northern Chile and we got to see a few families on our way.

We arrived in Chivay, the main village of the Colca region and relaxed the afternoon in an outdoor thermal bath, set scenically in the slope of a canyon. At an altitude of 3’600m and with winter approaching, the air was very chilly and standing 10 sec outside replaced the cold water basins you usually use after a hot bath.

No group tour excursion would be complete without a folkloric dance performance during dinner and we played good tourists and joined the local dances and photo session

After a warm night thanks to a precious electric heater, the alarm went off at 5:30 in order to catch the condors during their morning flight.

Along the way we stopped at a few villages, more or less interesting, of which the first one was by far Yang Ke’s favorite. Not because of the pretty church made of white sillar (which poor locals had to carry all the way from Arequipa), but because of its beautiful name

We caught a few young condors on the way, but the main target was the “Cruz del Condor”, where thermal conditions are optimal and in winter nearly every day condors are enjoying the warm updrifts in the morning. And we got not disappointed. Initially there were mostly brown = young condors, later joined by the older, black condors with their typical white neck, all in all a dozen flying at the same time.

How many can you spot here?

After an efficient return trip, we arrived in Arequipa 1.5 hours earlier than planned, just in time for the starting Peru match of the Copa America cup. Pure coincidence I am sure…

[Peru lost 2-1 against Brazil but gave a good performance and Brazil only managed to win in the 90th minute]

The next day turned out to be the birthday of the (now) 8-year old Nicolas and we got to know the whole family during his birthday party   Nico is a huge Star Wars fan who has seen all movies several times and loves running around in his Darth Vader mask.

We stay in a very pleasant part of Arequipa, just a nice 20 min walk to our Spanish school and can even reach the city center by walking. On the way one passes by many of the typical white houses, built from sillar (volcanic stone), giving Arequipa its name of “white city”.

The below building is not a museum – but the branch of a bank

Arequipa has a super dry climate – so far we had blue skies every day and no single drop of rain. Here people don’t have to bother about umbrellas and can enjoy more activities outside. Squash is plaid outdoors, restaurants survive without having a roof and we are enjoying our Spanish classes in the garden of the school.

The only small inconvenience comes from noisy animals. Rooster fights are a popular hobby in Arequipa and many keep their favorite pets at home. Our neighborhood seems to be very international with roosters kikeriki-ing their wake-up calls at every time of the day. They also get support from dozen of guard dogs who protect their house at the cost of their vocal cords.

We are having four hours of individual class every morning which feels pretty intense, so we spend many of our afternoons eating and relaxing, while doing homework and practicing. Some days we stroll through the nice city center, its churches and museums and the market, or we go for Salsa class which we recently started.
Arequipa is quite catholic and has a few old monasteries, some of which only opened their doors to the public for the first time a few years ago after being cut off by the outside for centuries (behind huge walls)
The biggest one, Santa Catalina, is like a hole district with a few streets and many houses.

We continue to explore the rich Peruvian cuisine. We love the fruits, like the Arequipenean Papaya (a smaller and sweeter variation), the Grenadia (also called “sweet maracuja”, similar to passion fruit), the guavas (again much softer and sweeter than what i have tasted elsewhere), the custard apple (here called chirimoya) and and and …

Yang Ke has found here favorite Ceviche place where she indulges once a week and she had her second guinea pig, this time fried (and flatted with a big stone) which we preferred to the previous oven-baked one….

I think we need a separate post for all the good food, speak you again soon

Yang Ke was not feeling very well (maybe due to the high altitude of 3’800m), so we had two rest days during which we only explored the cafes and restaurants and had some short walks in the city. There is not much sightseeing, but it is not an unpleasant town and good to experience some local life. Every day had some activity, from musical parades over political speeches to protest marches. Peru is strongly expanding their mining activities, causing a lot of protests from locals worried about the environmental impact. Strikes seem to be pretty common measure of protest in Peru and particularly in this border region with Bolivia. They are often limited to 1 or 2 days, but then pretty thorough. There was one during our stay and travelers had to delay their travel plans as the border got shut tight.
During our walks we passed by a cinema and spontaneously decided to watch the new Avenger movie, as the ticket price was a bargain of only 6.5 Soles ($2). Turned out to be a big challenge for our rudimentary Spanish, but we will use it as benchmark and watch it again after our Spanish course

Yang Ke was exploring the local job market, but offers for actuaries specialized in marine insurance were limited…

Our first trip to the Lake Titicaca brought us to the floating islands of Uros, an only 30min boat ride from the harbor

The Uru people settled down on the lake a very long time ago and since then live on their 80 or so floating islands, most of them rather small, typically occupied by one extended family. The islands are constructed fully of dried reeds, which is available in abundance on the lake. Of course the reed will rot over time and the island continuously has to be “restocked” with new layers of reed.

It is impressive how a community can survive on the water for centuries just relying on reed and fishing. Over time the Uros have intermingled more and more with the local tribes from onshore, loosing their own language and some of their customs, but still continue to live their traditional life with some small modernizations thanks to improved income from tourism.

The Titicaca Lake is immense and once you are away from the coast it feels more like an ocean, if it weren’t for the mountain panorama in the background.
A few of them have snowcaps, which in combination with the endless water makes for a quite unusual sight. That’s when you remember that Titicaca Lake is the highest navigable lake in the world…

There are a few islands on the lake which have been populated by other groups, less masochistic than the Uros. A homestay on one of the two larger islands is a nice getaway to experience the traditional lifestyle of the islanders while admiring the beautiful scenery. We opted for the island Amantani, where the elderly have adopted a fair system, rotating all guest families, so that everybody benefits from the tourists. While initially every family only hosted at most two guests and guests had more chance to experience the typical daily activities of the family, now many seem to have expanded their facilities to accommodate more guests. We ended up together with a Romanian family which didn’t speak Spanish and whose strong Romanian language seemed to intimidate the kind host.

We therefore enjoyed exploring the island and the beautiful views which reminded me of a Mediterranean island. Once the sun starts to set the island also turns pretty much black and we finished our day by sitting outside and waiting for the stars to emerge while the sun descends. The isolated location and high altitude make for a beautiful sky and view of the Milky Way.

After some online-research and talking to other travelers we soon narrowed down on the city of Arequipa, which seems a very attractive city to spend a few weeks and at the same time has a good selection of Spanish schools, without being overrun by foreigners, like Cusco where you might end up only hanging out with English-speakers. Arequipa is in the south of Peru, a 11 hour bus ride from Cuzco, which we were keen to cut down. Looking on the map, Puno and its neighbouring Titikaka lake seemed an attractive stop. The route would bring us through the Andean highlands and pass by a few historic places. Great that there is a bus company offering a guided bus trip with a few stops along the way and a knowledgeable guide (and comfortable seats)

After a stop at a beautiful church we came to the village Checacupe where you can cross the river via three types of bridges, a modern steel one, a colonial stone bridge or a (reconstructed) Inca rope bridge

As it was week-end the kids had time to perform a traditional dance for us and earn some pocket money:

Next was the highlight of the tour, the Inca village Raqchi with the enormous temple Wiracocha, of which the two-story 20m high foundation walls have been well preserved:

A shame the roof itself is no longer around – at 3’500m altitude the sun was burning hot, even the sheep were fighting for shadow:

Climbing in altitude we got past the tree line and landscapes changed totally from the previous rich valleys. With very limited options of food, life here gets pretty tough and people live mostly from their herds of Alpacas.
A stop on the highest pass along the route gave us a chance to indulge in the great scenery.

Cusco is still the regional capital and at the same time a big traveler base for all kind of activities, from hiking and rafting to jungle adventure trips. Our first big city after Lima and we enjoyed our first days in relax mode, strolling through the alleys of the city center and exploring the rich cuisine.

We didn’t have any plans, but when we passed by one of the beautiful inner courtyards and saw a sign for a cooking class that was too tempting. And 3 hours later we found ourselves sipping our self-prepared Pisco Sour , the national drink of Peru
After such nice warm-up we continued with more national dishes: Causa – which in its preparation reminds one of Sushi, but using mashed potato instead of rice and for filling onions, pepper, lime and tuna or meat – and Lomo saltado – stir fried beef, which seems to be a lot inspired from Asia

We continued in our culinary theme with a long visit to the local market, admiring the wide selection of potatoes (there are more than 3000 different types in Peru!), dried potatoes (easy for storage!), the popular local cheese (which to me all taste the same…) and range of breads and sweets.
The market is a popular lunch place and some stalls are seeing large crowds, sitting and standing in several rows. One whole section is dedicated only to fresh juices, looking so delicious we ignored all stomach-concerns.
Another hugely popular drink is Chicha, which is made from purple corn and some fruits and comes in a red, non-alcoholic and a fermented, alcoholic variation. Its sold everywhere in large containers or big clay jugs. Very refreshing during the hot and sunny afternoon

Cusco has another exquisite Plaza de Armas, this time with not one but two massive churches

There are many more beautiful squares, cute cobbled streets and nice architectures to explore

Another example of Inca’s masonry skills – the famous 12-sided stone:

With an altitude of 3.300m and a very hilly city-layout we had enough exercise from our daily city explorations and only on our last day ventured further out to visit the Inca citadel of Cusco, as usual situated on the hills overlooking the valley. To Yang Ke’s pleasure the ruins are surrounded by vast grass lawns, very popular with local Alpacas.

Benefiting from a highly salty spring emerging from a subterranean mountain stream, locals have been “harvesting” salt here for centuries, even before the Incas.

This little stream is then fed into hundreds of ponds, where the water evaporates and leaves the salt crystals behind. As ponds are at different stages of evaporation, it makes for a pretty photo shot, especially in sunlight. No good timing for us, as we had our first rain for a long time, just as we entered the taxi towards Salineras. But an impressive sight nevertheless:

The salt ponds are owned by several local families and the area is maintained jointly by the whole community, unchanged since Inca times.

Being the highlight of everybody’s Peru agenda,  many book their Machu Picchu visit way in advance, which tends to be a good idea as entrance tickets are limited and often sold out (increasingly year by year) and the only access to Machu Picchu is by train and therefore also limited to a few departures every day (unless you want to hike the Inka trail – which is even more limited to 500 people per day).

With no fixed travel agenda, we preferred to postpone our bookings and just checked online once in a while to make sure tickets are still available on short notice of 2-3 days in advance. Until we arrived in Ollantaytambo, the last stop before Machu Picchu and it was time to get tickets…
You know how around the world in every tourist village, no matter how small, there is always one travel agency at every street corner and you can count on hundreds of touts screaming after you “Cusco, Inka trail, Machu Picchu, …” (or whatever is the local highlight) ?  After a while of traveling you develop a natural ignorance for them and so it happened that only when we decided to open our ears in Ollantaytambo we realized how quiet it was 
!! Turns out Machu Picchu tickets can only be bought in Cuzco or directly at Machu Picchu !!

But no reason to panic – there is still the option of buying tickets online from the official site. (Even though the English version does not allow online booking, our rudimentary Spanish is already good enough to follow the, though complicated, Spanish booking).

Haha, you wish! Of course every little cafe nowadays offers WiFi, but nobody thought of upgrading Ollantaytambo’s internet capacity to the exponentially growing data usage of dear fellow travellers. The internet speed across town is so slow it was impossible to access the (flash-overloaded) webpage of Machu Picchu. After a few trials during the day and in different locations we figured out it’s not an issue of our hotel but an issue across the city (luckily I didnt send out that nasty tripadvisor review I had in mind…). Following a thorough regression analysis we deduced the strong correlation of “popular surfing time” to “access speed of Machu Picchu website” and set our alarm for next day 3am, where we were finally able to book our dear tickets.

After so much trouble to get our tickets, we were making sure we enjoy them as much as possible. Instead of rushing there in a day trip we booked ourselves two nights at the little town Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu mountains to have the full day at our disposal. Aguas Calientes is a place 100% dedicated to transiting tourists, cramped ablock with hostels, restaurants and shops and easily ignored, but  a short walk is enough to put you into the right mental state thanks to the mesmerizing scenery and a little Machu Picchu museum preparing us for the big day

There are a few tips to avoid the crowds (as much as that is possible). We followed one of them by pure coincidence, namely to go on a Sunday, when many tour groups have a visit to the market on their agenda. And indeed – while other days were mostly sold out, our day still had 500 tickets remaining. The main difference however comes from the timing of the visit. Early morning and late afternoon are the quietest so many people follow the early-bird strategy. The first bus leaves Aguas Calientes at 5:30 am and people are increasingly competing to be in the front of the line. Apparently nowadays the queue already starts at 4am and it seems only a question of time until the first put up their tent at the bus stop. Everybody who knows us are no stranger to our appetite for early wake-up calls. We therefore decided to focus on the afternoon for exploring the ruins and to spend the morning hiking up Machu Picchu mountain, one of the two mountains overlooking the ruins.

We arrived around 7 at the site, the morning mist had mostly cleared, and shortly after the entrance we were already stunned with the beautiful panorama of the ruins with Huayna Picchu mountain in the background.

After a first hour of enjoying the view and exploring the entrance section, we started our hike up the mountain.

Climbing the stairs up the Mountain, you get an increasingly wider view of the site and surrounding mountains and it’s hard to resist the urge to take photos at every turn. The climb is very enjoyable and technically not too difficult – only that we underestimated the 600m of elevation and were struggling at the end with the path getting steeper and steeper. Not recommended for people scared of heights!

The views from the summit made it all worth. Being the highest peak it gives you an amazing 360° view of the whole area.

All in all it took us 5 hours to get back to the “base” and judging from the registration book we might have set a new record for the slowest ascend
The remaining energy lasted just enough for us to limp into the only restaurant at the site. And to say the least, we were happy to indulge in a long buffet lunch break.

Revitalized, we re-emerged at the site in the early afternoon and spent the remaining time until closure at 5pm to explore the ruins.
By the time it had already gotten much emptier and we had a great time strolling through the different sections and admiring the architectures and the vastness of the ancient city.

It was really impressive how the city was integrated with its surrounding, optimizing the available space and using existing stones for religious purposes.

As often Yang Ke focused more on the fauna of the place and apart from the popular llamas, gracefully decorating the terraces, also discovered a few other inhabitants.

The sun was slowly setting and the guards were getting bored – until they started to chase us out.

All in all a truly impressive experience and even though we couldn’t feel any esoteric energies flowing through our bodies, I think Machu Picchu’s vote as New World Wonder is definitely justified!

Based at an altitude of 3,300m many visitors experience altitude sickness and there are lots of oxygen tank emergency services around to keep all the seniors from fainting. I didn’t take this too seriously at first but ultimately am glad that we followed the advice of not staying in Cusco and first acclimatize at a lower altitude. We settled down one hour away from Cusco in a village called Pisaq and even there at 2,500m had both quite some headache the first day or two.

Pisaq is situated in a river-valley surrounded by mountains and was once a large Inca settlement. In opposite to modern settlers, the Incas preferred to build their cities on the hills instead of the valleys, in particular to be better protected against the common earthquakes and landslides. The well preserved Pisaq ruins are a great introduction into Inca architecture and at the same time reward the hiking with impressive views on surrounding mountains and Pisaq valley.

The Inkas are famous for their advanced techniques in city-planning and building and in Pisaq we got introduced to their elaborate agricultural terraces and their engineering skills, building stone-houses without mortar by aligning stones perfectly with each other.

Setting a sign against the growing epidemic of selfies we created our own couple-version of the classical portrait shoot,  taking a photo of each other from our respective location:

Still acclimatizing, we choose the lazy option of taking the taxi up the mountains and walking down, which was just nice for us.

Very few tourists are staying in Pisaq and most come as part of a day-tour to see the ruins and the huge market, which apparently once was the biggest artisan market in South America (but now of fading importance). Our couple-run hostel was therefore very quiet and we enjoyed its nice garden and panoramic views.

Following the course of the river we continued to the next major Inca site Ollayantaytambo (great these names, no?) via local transportations of bus and minivan. On our first leg we chatted with a funny Peruvian hippie, who spends his life following some esoteric Inca lines and lives from selling his handmade flutes and art.

When changing van halfway in Urubamba he gave us a short intro to the place and brought us to the local market for lunch. It reminded me of a more rustic version of Singapore’s hawker centers. The set menu always comes with soup and a choice among 2 or 3 main dishes, but after the delicious soup filled with potatoes and vegetables we were already so stuffed we could barely finish one third of the main. And all for EUR 1.5 (SGD 2)!

We were lucky and it was the day of the weekly market where the whole surrounding countryside comes to sell their crops, fruits and meat. Streets were packed with food and there was so many kinds of fruits and vegetables we have never seen before, we gave up trying to remember all their names. Just the variety of potatoes, in all kinds of colors, sizes and textures is amazing.

Ollantaytambo is particularly interesting as it has a well preserved Inca city-layout with (narrow) cobbled streets, irrigation channels and many houses which have been continuously inhabited since the 13th century.

It also boosts an important Inca temple (later turned fortress in defense of the Spaniards) and has some smaller ruins spread out in the hills. The village gets pretty crowded as its the last stop before Machu Picchu and its main entrance point with the start of the Inca trail and the main train station (there is no easy road access to Machu Picchu). We therefore stayed three nights to spread out our activities in the quieter mornings and late afternoons.

The Inca temple/fortress impresses with even bigger (perfectly aligned) stones and accurately designed terraces

To get from one terrace to another people used (and sometimes still use) stoned staircases, integrated into the terrace-wall

After learning so much about the Inca culture, we were ready for the highlight of the tour

Machu Picchu here we come!