When I landed in Cusco everybody was telling me: "Ahah, you're coming for Inty Raimy!", "Well, yes, for sure!" and I was thinking "What is Inty Raimy?".

I was mostly coming to join Cecile, my friend from Grenoble who came for one month holidays in Peru. She told me a bit about this festival but it was pure coincidence that we were here at the right time. It was kind of great because this is the biggest celebration of the year in Cusco, and it's really beautiful.

The ceremony honors the God Sun. The Inca and all his followers march through the city to a temple situated at the top of Cusco and offer Chicha to their god and their visitors. Many symbols of the Inca culture are presents, the costumes, the acting are as real. But it seems to be ceremony introduced only in the early 20th century.

What to say about the food in Peru... Different, sometimes tasty, sometimes monotoneous but mostly surprising... Chicha, Cuy, chicken/rice and potatoes, “Rock potatoes”...

Chicha is a traditional drink coming from the Amazon, it is corn which has been masticated, by a woman most frequently, spitted and let macerating for a few days to become alcoolic. It tastes horrible to me...not thinking it has seen another mouth before you...yeark...

Cuy, pronounce Cuye or “Couille” for french speakers, it is guinea pig, a delicacy here. One can buy it whole, roasted and stretched at the market or in the street, ready to eat.

Chicken/rice and potatoes, the typical lunch and dinner, although we can find hundreds of varieties of vegetables in the market, not mentioning the dozen corn varieties and colors, they don’t seem to be used much for cooking. I don’t know what they are doing with it actually. But what is sure is that people never seem to get tired of this favourite dish.

“Rock potatoes” as I would call it, are potatoes that look and weight as rocks. They can be kept for 5 years without getting spoilt. But when it comes to cooking them... not as easy. We tried to eat it, out of curiosity. The guy at the market said to cook it 1h30 in water and then to fry them. Good. We cooked them, 1h, 2h, still hard, 3h, 4 hours still not cooked... Then a woman told us it actually needs to be cooked OVERNIGHT. A disaster...

I was not the only one to be tired in Cusco... ;-)

My arrival in Cusco was quite difficult.

First my flight from Rio was more than complicated. I had booked the cheapest flight possible, cheapest but not shortest.. My itinerary was the following: Rio-Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires-Asuncion, Asuncion-La Paz, and LaPaz - Cusco by bus... Really the easiest way to go to Peru...
When I arrived at the airport, a nice hostesse who didn't speak any english told me I have a flight to Asuncion.. What? No. To La Paz! Ah, no madam she answer politely, your flight Asuncion - La Paz was yesterday. I looked at her with big eyes and ask her if she believed what she was saying. And we discussed about the matter during more than 20min for finally ending with the conclusion that there WAS a problem with my reservation.
From this fact she told me she couldn't do anything for me and I should go to the reservation office. Ok. Once there, I had to explain again and convince the new girl it was not my fault, the reservation I had made online was not to Asuncion. After 20 more minutes she finally got convinced and started helping me. She was looking and looking at her computer without saying anything. Nobody was around, the airport was quiet and me too. Suddenly I hear a big "Ooohhh"..."Goooooaaaaal" from behind the wall in her back. All the employees were behind, watching the match Brazil - Ivory Coast and some of them came out to announce the good news. Very good but please I have a flight to catch!!
She goes off her seat and I wait. She brings another guy to look at her computer, and I wait. She goes have a look at the match and I wait... After 45min, she tells me I will have to stay in Rio one more night. There was no more seats available for the day... I'm ok with it but if you pay for everything. She ask me to wait then, she will ask her boss. Well, that's what I'm doing since more than an hour now.. She comes back, it's ok, they will pay. Good thing! Now I still need to go to La Paz. Again she starts to look at her computer for a long time. I wait. She looks at me, and sorry, tells me there is nothing to La Paz on the next day. I answer that, to help them, I could also take a flight to Cusco... thinking I wish I could go to Cusco directly!... She looks again and say, yes, there is a flight. COOL! For once I got Lucky!

So I land in Cusco on a Monday afternoon after three flights, Rio-Sao Paolo, Sao Paolo-Lima, Lima-Cusco. Not so bad. I look for the hostal recommended by my cusquenian neighbor in the plane. I fits me and I go take some rest. That's where my body realize that it is 3600m higher than before. And it doesn't like it at all... Headache, nausea, fatigue, it makes sure I understand. The girl from the hostal recommends coca tea to relieve altitude sickness. I then drink liters of tea and munch coca leaves all day long. It doesn't help much but after 3 days my body finally accept to live so high... Welcome in Cusco!