The only major activity you will be hard to come by, is winter sport. Actually, it will be hard to find a worse place to live in if your big passion is snowboarding fresh powder or climb frozen waterfalls!
Only the most desperate will attempt the Singapore indoor skiing facility. Trust me – nobody can be that desperate!

Being pin point on the equator means you wont find any snow in a radius of at least 5h flying time!
No wonder I never even considered the option of snowboarding during my first few years in Singapore and only started phantasizing about it after the topic emerged with my Korean colleague, who turned out to be a very enthusiastic snowboarder.
The skiing/snowboarding experience in my office was otherwise extremely limited, but after a few rounds of happy hour we managed to extend our group of enthusiasts to five and were soon heading out to our first winter sport trip to – Japan.

Options for winter sport in Asia are very very limited. Skiing in China is still in its infancy, which leaves Korea as the closest destination with decent ski resorts. Korean resorts however seem to be suffering from overcrowding and if already flying so far, we might as well fly a bit further and enjoy Japan, home to famous ski areas like Nagano (former winter Olympics) and Hokkaido (heaven of powder snow).

Our first ski trip to Hokkaido in 2013 became a big success and it has since become an annual tradition for us to go Japan beginning of the year.
Hokkaido being in the very north of Japan is very snow-safe and gets loads of new powder thanks to its Siberian influence. Typical for Japan everything is very reliable and efficient, lift facilities are excellent and rental equipment is usually of good quality.
And the best of all: during the week the slopes are usually very empty!

Obviously there are neither Europeans nor Americans coming to Japan for winter sport and among Asians skiing is still quite a new thing. That means the only foreigners you will see are from Australia & New Zealand and a few exotics from Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. And as working Japanese don’t have a lot of holidays, the only Japanese you will see are school groups.

If you like Japanese food, then thats another big selling point. From Sushi to Ramen the quality at hotels is typically very good and even on the slopes you get very decent lunch food.

Fancy a hot bath after the cold and tiring day of skiing? Nothing better than a relaxing Onsen bath! Even the smallest family hotel will have hot bath facilities, usually with an indoor and an outdoor section.

In my view the only aspect where Japanese skiing is loosing out against its counterparts in the Alpes, is Apres-ski. While in Europe the first thing after a long day of skiing might be to have a pint at a bar next to the slopes, in Japan the priority is on Onsen and a lavish dinner (plus drinks). There are bars around, where you can mingle with other foreigners, but don’t expect the same standard as in the Alpes.

If you like to mix your skiing with a bit of sightseeing there are many good options, especially in Hokkaido, where most ski resorts are close to the regional capital Sapporo, famous for the best Japanese beer, and smaller gems like the coastal town Otaru, where you can indulge in delicious Sushi and Hokkaido’s famous dairy products.

So far I could never convince Yang Ke to join me for my trips, despite the numerous food photos! I was hoping to build up credibility by introducing her to the wonders of snowboarding in Chile, but (as you know) that turned out a big fiasco and since then it has been a lost case ;(

Every year we try a new ski resort and this year we opted for a less known, more local resort close to Nagano. Usually we have a stop over in Tokyo over the weekend, to do some shopping and enjoy Tokyo food, and then spend the week in the ski resort when it is most quiet.

Our ski hotel’s location was amazing, just next to the slope, it was (again) very well managed and the food was varied and very tasty.
This year was quite a bad year for winter sports, in Europe as well as Japan. But even then conditions were still pretty good with only a few icy patches during the first two days. After the second day we got lots of new snow and  fully enjoyed the rest of our stay!

Being half-Dutch, I have to emphasize here on the subtle difference between The Netherlands and Holland. The latter, commonly used to describe the whole country, in reality only represents the two provinces of North- and South-Holland, covering the more famous and more prosperous coastal regions of the Netherlands.

After two freezing weeks in Germany, temperatures were finally rising again and the sun showed its face. We had a few lazy days, spending time with family, playing board games and going for little walks.

The Dutch are not famous for their culinary skills and instead focus on pragmatism when it comes to cooking. Netherlands has always been at the forefront in the innovation for pre-cooked meals and already twenty years ago the vegetable section of a supermarket would be dominated by small-sized portioned pre-cut and pre-washed vegetables in plastic bags.
Nevertheless I always crave to go back the Netherlands – not for any particular dishes but for all the snacks and sweets abound. My all-time favorite snack indeed is not the German-Turkish Kebap, but the Dutch Kroket.

This sinful delicacy is basically just a ragout with breading, deep-fried. You can use nearly everything as filling, but most commonly they are made of beef or veal. Apart from the classic one, my second favorite is the Satekroket, which includes peanut satay sauce – yummy
Most will eat their kroket together with fries, I will more often get it in a soft-bun, perfect for eating on the go!
Dutch snack cultur doesnt end here. Other classics are bitterballen (round version of kroket), Frikandel (deep-fried sausage), broodje garnalen (bun with shrimps from the North Sea), Hollands Nieuwe (raw herring).  Moving over to the sweet snacks you should not miss Pannekoeken (Dutch version of French crepe), Poffertjes (a smaller version on the go), bitterkoekjes (cookies with almand paste, best fresh from the bakery!) and Oliebollen (deep-fried dough with raisins, eat hot!).

As you can see we had a full food-agenda, but we managed to squeeze in a bit of sightseeing

Utrecht is a very charming yet lively mid-sized city. It is very typical Dutch with an old city center, loads of bicycles, loads of students and several canals, flanked by restaurants and bars.

Houses are mostly in the traditional Dutch design, narrow and low-rise, so you can always get a view on the very elegant cathedral (Domtoren).

We visited a friend of Yang Ke in a close-by city, which also gave us the opportunity to get to know a place not commonly on the tourist agenda – Delft.
Delft is known for famous painter Johannes Vermeer and for blue pottery, inspired from Chinese techniques and designs. If you like Venice, then this is the place for you. Walking through the city it felt like every second street was next to a canal.

With 100’000 population Delft is not that small, but on our Sunday morning it felt completely deserted which only got slightly better in the afternoon with a few people heading to the cafes and restaurants. We ended up in a cafe at 4:30 only to be kicked out after 30 min as the cafe was closing up.
Maybe it was the dreadful drizzling weather which made everybody want to stay in their cozy homes

Graced with more sunny days we enjoyed walking along the beautiful lake and taking the water taxi across, admiring the huge water fountain.

Despite the blue sky the temperature was quite chilly, which however didn’t prevent the weather-beaten locals to go for a swim during their lunch break.

Being Yang Ke’s first steps in Switzerland we started with a thorough exploration of the local food specialties. The Swiss department store Manor is a great place for such, with an amazing floor full of delicatessen.

Swiss food is a lot about cheese and after six years without decent cheese fondue, I was very looking forward to a proper Swiss fondue. I wasn’t disappointed!

Historically Geneva is less impressive than many of its counterparts, but it scores when it comes to museums and shopping. We went for a guided tour at the United Nations office, which was really interesting. It is offered in English and French and you get to see many areas of the big headquarter and learn about it’s activities and history.

Just opposite of the UN is the headquarter of the Red Cross, including it’s own comprehensive museum.
Initially we didn’t plan to go there but were keen to see a temporary exhibition on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. The exhibition had a small but excellent collection on Gandhi and several inspiring art pieces related to his philosophy on non-violent resistance.

Being famous for such diverse things as spicy food, pandas and gorgeous mountain lakes, the Sichuan province is a very popular tourist destination among many Asians.  We have always been a big fan of Sichuan restaurants in Singapore and were keen to verify their authenticity for ourselves!

Together with Yang Ke’s mum we took a direct flight to Chengdu from Wuxi’s own airport and installed ourselves in a very cute apartment discovered on airbnb

How by fate the apartment was in proximity of a popular food street – first stop of our city tour
The street’s architecture is inspired from previous dynasties and there is some interesting street art, but all of this is just a pretext for the real highlight: The Food.

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

The great advantage of these street markets is that food comes in snack-size portions, allowing you to savor a wider range of options. Nevertheless we barely got to the middle of the street before being full and were forced to switch to other activities. But no worry, Chengdu has loads of impressive sights to fill your time between lunch and dinner.

Jinsha, a massive archaeological site of the ancient Shu kingdom (around 1000 years BC) has only recently been discovered. A part of the original site and many of its very well preserved artifacts (lots of ivory and gold) can be visited in a modern museum, which also includes a large and quiet park.

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

After so much culture it was time for a food break. A friend of Yang Ke’s mum invited us to a posh Hotpot restaurant (ShuJiuXiang), another famous specialty of Sichuan.

Whats makes Sichuan spiciness so particular is the devilish combination of spicy chili and mouth-numbing pepper, called MaLa in Chinese (mouth-numbing spicy), which assures you a high body temperature even in the coldest winter.
After receiving the hotpot-broth filled to the brim with chilies and peppers, we took out a whole bowl of those before even daring to try a spoon. Of course it remained very spicy, which we had to cool down with sour plum juice.

The main reason for many to come to Chengdu are the cute and chubby pandas, native to Sichuan province and surrounding area.
The best way to experience them is with a visit to the large panda breeding and research base in Chengdu, giving birth to around 100 pandas every year. It is a large zoo-like area with separate outdoor camps for different aged pandas and indoor facilities to get a glimpse at newborns and babies. Some of the areas for adult pandas are pretty large and the lazy pandas can be difficult to spot, but there are also lots of smaller spaces where the less camera shy ones spend hours munching on their favorite bamboos. As bamboo is quite low on energy, pandas have to spend half of the day eating, while sitting on their fat butt and will spend the rest mostly napping or slowly strolling around.

The pandas have quite different characters, some being more shy and individual, others more playful and curious. They seem usually rather lazy, dosing in trees after eating  but you can also spot some playing with each other

Next up was (you guessed it) more food! You would think that after one food street you have seen it all and everything else will just be copies of the same things, but not in Chengdu!
We ventured to another popular food street and spent another dinner just snacking from one stall to the next.

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

My favorite sweet snack is this delicious pineapple rice combo:

Another cultural highlight of Chengdu is the temple of WuHou, a royal advisor called ZhugeLiang who is considered the embodiment of intelligence and wisdom in China. He lived during the Three Kingdom period, a very dramatic era which still inspires many movies and TV dramas.

A worthwhile day trip is the visit of the ancient town of HuangLongXi (Yellow Dragon River), a pretty little historic town of the Qing dynasty (1700 years old), named after the river flowing through it. In summer it must be an even more charming place to meet and drink tea in one of its many small streets.

We concluded our visit with the highlight for Yang Ke and her mum, the transformation into a beautiful opera singer.
At the backstage of an actual Sichuan opera house you get to choose your preferred figure among a huge selection, from little princess to funny clowns and serious generals.

Most of the time goes to the makeup, creating the very expressive face through many layers

The one hour waiting is definitely worthwhile when you see the results:

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]

I will leave the long story to Yang Ke, but in a nutshell we ended up in Chile with only one empty full page in her passport remaining and banged our heads against the “internal rule” (which of course is nowhere stated and we weren’t aware before) that no new passport can be issued outside of China or your country of residency. As you can expect we didn’t have any luck trying to gain sympathy for our situation and even our offerings of expensive rice wine were to no avail – thanks Xi Jinping!   [just kidding!]

On the positive side we had a great accommodation for our stay, thanks to a wonderful family we met in our hostel in San Pedro, who invited us to their mansion, despite not even being in Santiago at that time!! Only a Peruvian maid and a cute dog were guarding the house and both welcomed us wholeheartedly

After a depressive day with the embassy, we were greeted the next day by a beautiful (and rare!) blue sky, thanks to a previous rain clearing up the pollution. We took the opportunity to hike up the central hill Cerro San Cristobal, a large nature reserve with nice views on Santiago and its Gran Torre – the (creatively named) largest skyscraper in South America.

Its here that we discovered the unusual but very tasty and refreshing drink Mate con Huesillo – made from wheat and peaches and with a whole peach inside.

The park’s summit is occupied by the compulsory Christian statue – this time of Virgin Mary, but more interestingly also comes with an open-air church / amphitheater.

Santiago has a few smaller districts worth a stroll, like the barrio Paris-Londres or the barrio Brasil, but if you are from Europe those wont excite you too much.

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

Plaza de Armas is again a nice central square with a few historic buildings in its vicinity, but actually more interesting for its activities. One corner has dozen of busy chess tables, while the area in front of the cathedral is in the hands of several street artists, acrobats and performers – all of good standard and attracting large crowds!

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

The district Bellavista, with its many cafes, bars and restaurants was probably our favorite and food is certainly an argument for having a longer stop in Santiago. We happily indulged in our first Korean food for months which was very authentic  – in difference to (the few) Chinese restaurants we tried in Chile. And we had great steak house – at an unbeatable quality/price ratio!

Before hopping on our next 10h long bus journey we had a pit-stop in the large city Antofagasta to enjoy some big-city life and take care of a few errands. Even though Antofagasta doesn’t have any great sights to offer it is a pleasant town and people were in a good mood following the win of the Copa America. We were quite struggling to find an open bar to watch the final, as it seems most Chileans prefer to enjoy the matches at home with friends and family. Also the car parade following the win was a bit disappointing for South-American standard…

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

Our next stop was La Serena, another coastal town and the pretty neighbor of Norte Chico’s not-so-pretty capital Coquimbo.
In Peru we somehow never thought about the possibility to use Airbnb and stay with a local host, instead always opting for hostels and hotels. Only after our great experience with our family in Arequipa did we start to have a look at Airbnb, especially for places we planned to stay a bit longer. So far in Chile we had no success as smaller towns usually had only few offers or we were just too late, but La Serena has a few nice hosts and we decided to stay with a Malaysian/ Chilean couple – the mentioning of Chicken curry in the description was enough to make Yang Ke’s eyes shiny and mouth watery!
Her instincts proved to be spot on and we had a great stay at their beautiful house, together with five lovely dogs and one lazy cat. Ravi, a retired Indian-Malaysian who moved to Chile five years ago, has a big repertoire of delicious dishes, covering Indian, Malaysian and Chilean cuisine, and he was super helpful with our sightseeing and travel planning.

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

La Serena is another city blessed with kilometers of sand beach and dotted with condominiums, holiday home for Chileans and foreigners alike. It has a nice enough historical city center and serves as a good base to explore several nature parks and the Elqui valley, famous for its Pisco vineyards and for being home of several sky observatories. We were keen to visit the Humboldt Penguin Nature Reserve, whose islands are home to sea lions, dolphins and (you guessed it) penguins, but we gave up after ferry service remained cancelled for three days straight due to high tide and strong winds. Instead we spend more time exploring La Serena and Coquimbo and opted for a longer visit to the Pisco valleys.

Coquimbo’s port, once busy with gold and copper exportation and with lots of European immigration, lost its significance over time and now only serves for fishing purpose. It still holds a small armada of fishing boats with a little fish market attracting sea lions and hundreds of pelicans waiting for their chance to grab some leftover chunks.

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

The city has a little “barrio ingles” (English district) from its glory days which has been partially beautified and which gets busy in the evening with several bars.

Otherwise Coquimbo’s main sight is the very obvious 80m tall Cruz del Tercer Milenio, not for its architectonic beauty but for the panoramic views from its vertical cross.

We left La Serena for a trip to the Elqui region to enjoy its scenic valleys full of vineyards, slurp some pisco (sour) and give me one more chance to gaze into Chiles famous night skies.
The region is another hotspot for stargazing and host to several international observatories.
After our misfortunes in San Pedro this was our best bet to finally enjoy a few nights of clear Milky Way. It was new moon, the valley boosts 320 sun days per year and we were booked three nights into a homely hostel in Pisco Elqui. What could go wrong?

We took it in good spirit – after all, who can claim to have seen snow in Pisco Elqui?!  (Apparently the second time only over the last ten years). It snowed nearly the whole day and we spend a cosy day next to a wood oven – the closest feeling of a German Christmas I had since living in Singapore

We had a tour in a small artisan pisco production, which probably would have been very interesting if not for the (Chilean)Spanish only guide I could only roughly guess what he was saying and Yang Ke fell asleep of half way. A good example why Chileans are so infamous for speaking the worst Spanish in South America…
After tasting their award winning piscos we could also conclude once and for all that we really don’t like pisco and from now on will only drink it mixed with loads of lemon and sugar!

We returned to La Serena for one night (tours to Humboldt reserve still cancelled….), said good bye to our hosts Ravi and Eli and the five dogs and hopped on a bus to the big capital

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

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.